K. Rich. Well, go, muster men. But, hear you, leave behind

Your son, George Stanley; look your heart be firm, Or else his head's assurance is but frail.

Stan. So deal with him, as I prove true to you.

Enter a Messenger.

[Exit STANLEY.

Mess. My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire, As I by friends am well advértised,

Sir Edward Courtenay, and the haughty prelate,
Bishop of Exeter, his elder brother,

With many more confederates, are in arms.

Enter another Messenger.

2 Mess. In Kent, my liege, the Guildfords are in arms; And every hour more competitors'

Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong.

Enter another Messenger.

death?

3 Mess. My lord, the army of great BuckinghamK. Rich. Out on ye, owls! nothing but songs of [He strikes him. There, take thou that, till thou bring better news. 3 Mess. The news I have to tell your majesty, Is,-that, by sudden floods and fall of waters, Buckingham's army is dispersed and scattered; And he himself wandered away alone,

No man knows whither.

K. Rich.

O, I cry you mercy;

There is my purse, to cure that blow of thine.

Hath any well-advised friend proclaimed

Reward to him that brings the traitor in?

3 Mess. Such proclamation hath been made, my liege.

Enter another Messenger.

4 Mess. Sir Thomas Lovel, and lord marquis Dorset, 'Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms.

1 Competitors here means confederates.

But this good comfort bring I to your highness,-
The Bretagne navy is dispersed by tempest.
Richmond, in Dorsetshire, sent out a boat
Unto the shore, to ask those on the banks,
If they were his assistants, yea, or no;
Who answered him, they came from Buckingham
Upon his party: he, mistrusting them,

Hoised sail, and made his course again for Bretagne. K. Rich. March on, march on, since we are up in

arms;

If not to fight with foreign enemies,

Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.

Enter CATESBY.

Cate. My liege, the duke of Buckingham is taken; That is the best news. That the earl of Richmond Is with a mighty power1 landed at Milford, Is colder news, but yet they must be told.

K. Rich. Away towards Salisbury; while we reason here,

A royal battle might be won and lost.—

Some one take order, Buckingham be brought
To Salisbury; the rest march on with me. [Exeunt.

SCENE V. A Room in Lord Stanley's House.

Enter STANLEY and SIR CHRISTOPHER URSWICK.2 Stan. Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me ;— That in the sty of this most bloody boar,

1 The earl of Richmond embarked with about two thousand men at Harfleur, in Normandy, August 1, 1485, and landed at Milford Haven on the 7th. He directed his course to Wales, hoping the Welsh would receive him cordially as their countryman, he having been born at Pembroke, and his grandfather being Owen Tudor, who married Katharine of France, the widow of king Henry V.

2 Sir Christopher Urswick, a priest, chaplain to the countess of Richmond, who was married to the lord Stanley. This priest, the chronicles tell us, frequently went backwards and forwards, unsuspected, on messages between the countess of Richmond and her husband, and the young earl of Richmond, whilst he was preparing to make his descent on England.

My son George Stanley is franked1 up in hold;
If I revolt, off goes young George's head;
The fear of that withholds my present aid.
But, tell me, where is princely Richmond now?

Chris. At Pembroke, or at Ha'rford-west, in Wales. Stan. What men of name resort to him? Chris. Sir Walter Herbert, a renowned soldier; Sir Gilbert Talbot, sir William Stanley; Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, sir James Blunt, And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew; And many other of great fame and worth; And towards London do they bend their course, If by the way they be not fought withal.

Stan. Well, hie thee to thy lord; commend me to him ;

Tell him, the queen hath heartily consented
He shall espouse Elizabeth her daughter.
These letters will resolve him of my mind.
Farewell.

[Gives papers to SIR CHRISTOPHer.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I. Salisbury. An open Place.

Enter the Sheriff, and Guard, with BUCKINGHAM, led to

execution.

Buck. Will not king Richard let me speak with him ?3

Sher. No, my good lord; therefore be patient.

He was afterwards almoner to king Henry VII., and refused the bishopric of Norwich. He retired to Hackney, where he died in 1527.

1 Vide note on p. 31, ante.

2 There is reason to think that Buckingham's execution took place at Shrewsbury.

3 The reason why the duke of Buckingham solicited an interview with Richard is explained in King Henry VIII. Act i.

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!

This is All-Souls' day, fellows, is it not?

Sher. It is, my lord.

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

This is the day, which, in king Edward's time,
I wished might fall on me, when I was found
False to his children, or his wife's allies.
This is the day, wherein I wished to fall
By the false faith of him whom most I trusted;
This, this, All-Souls' day to my fearful soul,
Is the determined respite of my wrongs.1
That high All-seer which I dallied with,
Hath turned my feigned prayer on my head,
And given in earnest what I begged in jest.
Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points on their masters' bosoms;
Thus Margaret's curse falls heavy on my neck,-
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.2
[Exeunt BUCKINGHAM, &c.

1 The time to which the punishment of his injurious practices or the wrongs done by him was respited.

2 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.

SCENE II. Plain near Tamworth.

Enter, with drum and colors, RICHMOND, OXFORD,1 SIR JAMES BLUNT, SIR WALTER HERBERT, and others, with Forces, marching.

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 marched on without impediment;
And here receive we from our father Stanley
Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,
That spoiled your summer fields, and fruitful vines,
Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough
In your embowelled bosoms, this foul swine.
Lies now even in the centre of this isle,
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 turn to us. Blunt. He hath no friends, but who are friends for

fear;

Which, in his dearest need, will fly 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 kings.

[Exeunt.

1 John de Vere, earl of Oxford, a zealous Lancastrian, who, after a long confinement in Hammes castle, in Picardy, escaped in 1484, and joined Richmond at Paris. He commanded the archers at the battle of Bosworth.

2 Sir James Blunt had been captain of the castle of Hammes, and assisted Oxford in his escape.