Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble,'
And startled, when he looked upon the Tower,
As loath to bear me to the slaughter-house.
O, now I want the priest that spake to me:
I now repent I told the pursuivant,
As too triumphing, how mine enemies
To-day at Pomfret bloodily were butchered,
And I myself secure in grace and favor.
O, Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
Is lighted on poor Hastings' wretched head.

Cate. Despatch, my lord; the duke would be at dinner;

Make a short shrift; he longs to see your head.

2

Hast. O, momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks,
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast;
Ready, with every nod, to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

Lov. Come, come, despatch; 'tis bootless to exclaim.
Hast. O, bloody Richard!-miserable England!

I prophesy the fearful'st time to thee,

That ever wretched age hath looked upon.
Come, lead me to the block; bear him my head;
They smile at me, who shortly shall be dead.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. The same.

The Tower Walls.

Enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM, in rusty armor, and marvellous ill-favored.

Glo. Come, cousin, canst thou quake, and change thy color?

1 A foot-cloth horse was a palfrey covered with housings, used for state. This is from Holinshed, who copies sir Thomas More.

2 William lord Hastings was beheaded on the 13th of June, 1483. His eldest son by Catharine Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, and widow of William lord Bonville, was restored to his honors and estate by king Henry VII. in the first year of his reign. The daughter of lady Hastings, by her first husband, was married to the marquis of Dorset, who appears in the present play.

Murder thy breath in middle of a word,-
And then again begin, and stop again,

As if thou wert distraught, and mad with terror?
Buck. Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian;
Speak, and look back, and pry on every side,
Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,
Intending1 deep suspicion: ghastly looks
Are at my service, like enforced smiles;
And both are ready in their offices,

At any time to grace my stratagems.

But what, is Catesby gone?

Glo. He is; and, see, he brings the mayor along.

Enter the Lord Mayor and CATESBY.

Buck. Let me alone to entertain him.-Lord

mayor,

Glo. Look to the drawbridge there.

Buck.

Hark, hark! a drum. Glo. Catesby, o'erlook the walls. Buck. Lord mayor, the reason we have sent for you,

Glo. Look back; defend thee; here are enemies. Buck. God and our innocence defend and guard us!

Enter LovEL and RATCLIFF,2 with HASTINGS's head.

Glo. Be patient; they are friends; Ratcliff, and Lovel.

Lov. Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,

The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.

Glo. Šo dear I loved the man, that I must weep. I took him for the plainest, harmless creature, That breathed upon the earth a Christian; Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded The history of all her secret thoughts.

1 i. e. pretending.

2 The quarto has "Enter Catesby with Hastings's head." For this absurd alteration, by which Ratcliff is represented at Pomfret and in London at the same time, it is probable the editors of the folio have to answer.

So smooth he daubed his vice with show of virtue,
That, his apparent, open guilt omitted,-

I mean his conversation with Shore's wife,―

He lived from all attainder of suspect.

Buck. Well, well, he was the covert'st, sheltered traitor

That ever lived.-Look you, my lord mayor,
Would you imagine, or almost believe,
(Were't not, that by great preservation
We live to tell it you,) the subtle traitor
This day had plotted in the council-house,
To murder me, and my good lord of Gloster?
May. What! had he so?

Glo. What! think you we are Turks, or infidels ?
Or that we would, against the form of law,
Proceed thus rashly in the villain's death;
But that the extreme peril of the case,

The peace of England, and our persons' safety,
Enforced us to this execution?

May. Now, fair befall you! he deserved his death;
And your good graces both have well proceeded,
To warn false traitors from the like attempts.

I never looked for better at his hands,

After he once fell in with mistress Shore.

heard

Buck. Yet had we not determined he should die, Until your lordship came to see his end; Which now the loving haste of these our friends, Somewhat against our meaning, hath prevented; Because, my lord, we would have had you The traitor speak, and timorously confess The manner and the purpose of his treasons; That you might well have signified the same Unto the citizens, who, haply, may

Misconstrue us in him, and wail his death.

May. But, my good lord, your grace's word shall

serve,

As well as I had seen, and heard him speak;
And do not doubt, right noble princes both,
But I'll acquaint our duteous citizens
With all your just proceedings in this case.

Glo. And to that end we wished your lordship here, To avoid the censures of the carping world.

Buck. But since you came too late of our intent,1 Yet witness what you hear we did intend;

And so, my good lord mayor, we bid farewell.

[Exit Lord Mayor.

Glo. Go after, after, cousin Buckingham.

The mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post;—
There, at your meetest vantage of the time,
Infer the bastardy of Edward's children.
Tell them, how Edward put to death a citizen,
Only for saying-he would make his son
Heir to the crown; meaning, indeed his house,
Which by the sign thereof, was termed so.2
Moreover, urge his hateful luxury,

And bestial appetite in change of lust;

Which stretched unto their servants, daughters,

wives,

Even where his raging eye, or savage heart,
Without control, lusted to make his prey.

Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person:
Tell them, when that my mother went with child
Of that insatiate Edward, noble York,

My princely father, then had wars in France;
And, by just computation of the time,
Found that the issue was not his begot;
Which well appeared in his lineaments,
Being nothing like the noble duke my father.
Yet touch this sparingly, as 'twere far off;
Because, my lord, you know, my mother lives.
Buck. Doubt not, my lord; I'll play the orator,
As if the golden fee, for which I plead,
Were for myself; and so, my lord, adieu.

1 "Too late of our intent." In common speech, a similar phrase is sometimes used; viz. "to come short of a thing." Mason would have changed of to for.

2 This person was one Walker, a substantial citizen and grocer, at the Crown in Cheapside. These topics of Edward's cruelty, lust, unlawful marriage, &c. are enlarged upon in that most extraordinary invective, the petition presented to Richard before his accession, which was afterwards turned into an act of parliament.-Parl. Hist. 2. p. 396.

Glo. If you thrive well, bring them to Baynard's

castle;1

Where you shall find me well accompanied,
With reverend fathers, and well-learned bishops.
Buck. I go; and, towards three or four o'clock,
Look for the news that the Guildhall affords.

[Exit BUCKINGHAM. Glo. Go, Lovel, with all speed to doctor Shaw,— Go thou [To CAT.] to friar Penker;-bid them both Meet me, within this hour, at Baynard's castle.

[Exeunt LovEL and CATESBY. Now will I in, to take some privy order To draw the brats of Clarence2 out of sight; And to give notice, that no manner of person Have, any time, recourse unto the princes.

[Exit.

SCENE VI. A Street.

Enter a Scrivener.

Scriv. Here is the indictment of the good lord Hastings;

Which in a set hand fairly is engrossed,

That it may be to-day read o'er in Paul's.
And mark how well the sequel hangs together.-
Eleven hours I have spent to write it over,

1 Baynard's castle was originally built by Baynard, a nobleman who (according to Stowe) came in with the Conqueror. It had belonged to Richard duke of York, but was now Edward the Fifth's. This edifice, which stood in Thames-street, has been long pulled down; it is said that parts of its strong foundations may be seen at low water.

2 Edward earl of Warwick, who, the day after the battle of Bosworth, was sent by Richmond from his confinement at Sheriff-Hutton castle to the Tower, without even the shadow of an allegation against him, and who was afterwards cruelly sacrificed to a scruple of Ferdinand king of Spain, who was unwilling to marry his daughter Katharine to Arthur prince of Wales while he lived, conceiving that his claim might interfere with Arthur's succession to the crown. He was beheaded in 1499. Margaret, afterwards married to sir Richard Pole, the last princess of the house of Lancaster, who was restored in blood in the fifth year of Henry VIII., and afterwards, in the thirty-first year of his reign [1540], barbarously led to the block at the age of seventy, for some offence conceived at the conduct of her son cardinal Pole.