Hast. My lord, I hold my life as dear as you do

yours;

And never, in my life, I do protest,

Was it more precious to me than 'tis now:
Think you, but that I know our state secure,
I would be so triumphant as I am?

Stan. The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from
London,

Were jocund, and supposed their states were sure,
And they, indeed, had no cause to mistrust;
But yet, you see, how soon the day o'ercast.
This sudden stab of rancor I misdoubt;

Pray God, I say, I prove a needless coward!

What, shall we toward the Tower? The day is spent. Hast. Come, come, have with you.-Wot you what, my lord?

To-day, the lords you talk of are beheaded.

Stan. They, for their truth, might better wear their

heads,

Than some, that have accused them, wear their hats. But come, my lord, let's away.

Enter a Pursuivant.

Hast. Go on before; I'll talk with this good fellow. [Exeunt STAN. and CATESBY. How now, sirrah? how goes the world with thee? Purs. The better, that your lordship please to ask. Hast. I tell thee, man, 'tis better with me now, That when thou met'st me last where now we meet : Then was I going prisoner to the Tower, By the suggestion of the queen's allies; But now I tell thee, (keep it to thyself,) This day those enemies are put to death, And I in better state than ere I was.

Purs. God hold it,' to your honor's good content! Hast. Gramercy, fellow. There, drink that for me.

[Throwing him his purse. [Exit Pursuivant.

1 That is, continue it.

Enter a Priest.

Pr. Well met, my lord; I am glad to see your honor. Hast. I thank thee, good sir John,' with all my heart.

I am in your debt for your last exercise;
Come the next Sabbath, and I will content you.

Enter BUCKINGHAM.2

Buck. What, talking with a priest, lord chamberlain ? Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest: Your honor hath no shriving work in hand.

Hast. 'Good faith, and when I met this holy man, The men you talk of came into my mind. What, go you toward the Tower?"

Buck. I do, my lord; but long I cannot stay there. I shall return before your lordship thence.

Hast. Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there. Buck. And supper too, although thou know'st it

[Aside.

SCENE III. Pomfret. Before the Castle.

Enter RATCLIFF, with a Guard, conducting RIVERS, GREY,3 and VAUGHAN, to execution.

Rat. Come, bring forth the prisoners.

Riv. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this,—

1 See note 1 on the first scene of The Merry Wives of Windsor. 2 From the continuation of Harding's Chronicle, 1543, where the account given originally by sir Thomas More is transcribed with some additions, it appears that the person who held this conversation with Hastings was sir Thomas Howard, who is introduced in the last act of this play as earl of Surrey.

3 Queen Elizabeth Grey is deservedly pitied for the loss of her two sons; but the royalty of their birth has so engrossed the attention of historians, that they never reckon into the number of her misfortunes the murder of this her second son, sir Richard Grey. It is remarkable how

To-day shalt thou behold a subject die,
For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.

Grey. God keep the prince from all the pack of you!

A knot you are of damned blood-suckers.

Vaugh. You live, that shall cry woe for this here

after.

Rat. Despatch; the limit of your lives is out.

Riv. O, Pomfret, Pomfret! O, thou bloody prison, Fatal and ominous to noble peers!

Within the guilty closure of thy walls,

Richard the Second here was hacked to death;
And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,

We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink.

Grey. Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon their heads,

When she exclaimed on Hastings, you, and I,
For standing by when Richard stabbed her son.
Riv. Then cursed she Hastings, then cursed she
Buckingham,

Then cursed she Richard :-O, remember, God,
To hear her prayers for them, as now for us!
And for my sister, and her princely sons,-
Be satisfied, dear God, with our true bloods,
Which, as thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt !
Rat. Make haste, the hour of death is expiate.1
Riv. Come, Grey,-come, Vaughan,-let us here
embrace :

Farewell, until we meet again in heaven.

[Exeunt.

slightly the death of earl Rivers is always mentioned, though a man invested with such high offices of trust and dignity; and how much we dwell on the execution of the lord chamberlain Hastings, a man in every light his inferior. In truth, the generality draw their ideas of English story from the tragic rather than the historic authors.-Walpole.

1 We have this word in the same sense again in Shakspeare's twentysecond sonnet :—

"Then look I death my days should expiate." Steevens thinks it an error of the press for expirate

SCENE IV. London. A Room in the Tower.

BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, the BISHOP of ELY, CATESBY, LOVEL, and others, sitting at a table: Officers of the Council attending.

Hast. Now, noble peers, the cause why we are met Is to determine of the coronation :

In God's name, speak, when is the royal day?
Buck. Are all things ready for that royal time?
Stan. They are; and wants but nomination.2
Ely. To-morrow then I judge a happy day.
Buck. Who knows the lord protector's mind, here-
in ?

Who is most inward3 with the noble duke?

Ely. Your grace, we think, should soonest know his mind.

Buck. We know each other's faces; for our hearts, He knows no more of mine, than I of

yours; Nor I of his, my lord, than you of mine:

Lord Hastings, you and he are near in love.

Hast. I thank his grace, I know he loves me well; But for his purpose in the coronation,

I have not sounded him, nor he delivered

His gracious pleasure any way therein :

But you, my noble lord, may name the time;
And in the duke's behalf I'll give my voice,
Which, I presume, he'll take in gentle part.

Enter GLOster.

Ely. In happy time, here comes the duke himself. Glo. My noble lords and cousins, all, good morrow:

I have been long a sleeper; but, I trust,

1 Dr. John Morton, who was elected to the see of Ely in 1478. He was advanced to the see of Canterbury in 1486, and appointed lord chancellor in 1487. He died in the year 1500.

2 The appointment of a particular day for the ceremony.

3 Intimate, confidential.

My absence doth neglect no great design,
Which by my presence might have been concluded.
Buck. Had you not come upon your cue,1 my lord,
William lord Hastings had pronounced your part,—
I mean your voice, for crowning of the king.

Glo. Than my lord Hastings, no man might be bolder;

His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.
Hast. I thank your grace."

2

Glo. My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, I saw good strawberries in your garden there; I do beseech you, send for some of them.

Ely. Marry, and will, my lord, with all my heart.

[Exit ELY. Glo. Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.

[Takes him aside. Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business; And finds the testy gentleman so hot, That he will lose his head, ere give consent, His master's child, as worshipfully he terms it, Shall lose the royalty of England's throne.

Buck. Withdraw yourself awhile; I'll go with you. [Exeunt GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM. Stan. We have not yet set down this day of triumph. To-morrow, in my judgment, is too sudden;

For I myself am not so well provided,
As else I would be, were the day prolonged.

Re-enter BISHOP of ELY.

Ely. Where is my lord protector? I have sent For these strawberries.

1 See note on Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2.

2 This sentence Malone restored from the original quarto; it was omitted in the folio.

3 This circumstance of asking the bishop for some of his strawberries originates with sir Thomas More, who mentions the protector's entrance to the council "fyrste about ix of the clocke, saluting them curtesly, and excusing himself that he had ben from them so long, saieng merily that he had been a slepe that day. And after a little talking with them he said unto the bishop of Elye, my lord, you have very good strawberries at your gardayne in Holberne, I require you let us have a messe of them."