Hast. His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this

morning;

There's some conceit or other likes him well,

When he doth bid good morrow with such spirit.
I think there's ne'er a man in Christendom,
Can lesser hide his love, or hate, than he ;
For by his face, straight shall you know his heart.
Stan. What of his heart perceive you in his face,
By any likelihood he showed to-day?

Hast. Marry, that with no man here he is offended; For, were he, he had shown it in his looks.

Re-enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM.

Glo. I pray you all, tell me what they deserve
That do conspire my death with devilish plots
Of damned witchcraft, and that have prevailed
Upon my body with their hellish charms?

Hast. The tender love I bear your grace, my lord,
Makes me most forward in this noble presence
To doom the offenders. Whosoe'er they be,

I say, my lord, they have deserved death.

Glo. Then be your eyes the witness of their evil.
Look how I am bewitched; behold mine arm
Is, like a blasted sapling, withered up.

And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch,
Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.
Hast. If they have done this deed, my noble lord,—
Glo. If thou protector of this damned strumpet,
Talk'st thou to me of ifs ?-Thou art a traitor :-
Off with his head: now, by saint Paul, I swear,
I will not dine until I see the same.
Lovel, and Catesby, look that it be done;
The rest that love me, rise, and follow me.

[Exeunt Council, with GLO. and Buck. Hast. Woe, woe, for England, not a whit for me: For I, too fond, might have prevented this: Stanley did dream the boar did rase his helm; But I disdained it, and did scorn to fly.

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.
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,2
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,
Intending' 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. So 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.

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 heard 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.

VOL. V.

10

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.