The rest, that love me, rise and follow me.
[Exeunt all except HASTINGS, LOVEL, and RATCLIFF.]
HASTINGS
Woe, woe, for England! not a whit for me;
For I, too fond, might have prevented this.
Stanley did dream the boar did raze his helm;
And I did scorn it, and disdain to fly.
Three times to-day my footcloth horse did stumble,
And started, when he look’d upon the Tower,
As loth to bear me to the slaughterhouse.
O, now I need 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 butcher’d,
And I myself secure in grace and favour.
O Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
Is lighted on poor Hastings’ wretched head!
RATCLIFF
Come, come, despatch; the duke would be at dinner:
Make a short shrift; he longs to see your head.
HASTINGS
O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
Who builds his hope in air of your good looks
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,
Ready, with every nod, to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.
LOVEL
Come, come, despatch; ‘tis bootless to exclaim.
HASTINGS
O bloody Richard!—miserable England!
I prophesy the fearfull’st time to thee
That ever wretched age hath look’d upon.—
Come, lead me to the block; bear him my head:
They smile at me who shortly shall be dead.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE V. London. The Tower Walls
[Enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM in rusty armour, marvellous ill-favoured.]
GLOSTER
Come, cousin, canst thou quake and change thy colour,
Murder thy breath in middle of a word,
And then again begin, and stop again,
As if thou were distraught and mad with terror?
BUCKINGHAM
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 enforcèd smiles;
And both are ready in their offices,
At any time to grace my stratagems.
But what, is Catesby gone?
GLOSTER
He is; and, see, he brings the mayor along.
[Enter the LORD MAYOR and CATESBY.]
BUCKINGHAM
Lord mayor,—
GLOSTER
Look to the drawbridge there!
BUCKINGHAM
Hark! a drum.
GLOSTER
Catesby, o’erlook the walls.
BUCKINGHAM
Lord Mayor, the reason we have sent,—
GLOSTER
Look back, defend thee,—here are enemies.
BUCKINGHAM
God and our innocency defend and guard us!
GLOSTER
Be patient; they are friends,—Ratcliff and Lovel.
[Enter LOVEL and RATCLIFF, with HASTINGS’ head.]
LOVEL
Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,
The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.
GLOSTER
So dear I lov’d the man that I must weep.
I took him for the plainest harmless creature
That breath’d upon the earth a Christian;
Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded
The history of all her secret thoughts:
So smooth he daub’d his vice with show of virtue
That, his apparent open guilt omitted,—
I mean, his conversation with Shore’s wife,—
He liv’d from all attainder of suspécts.
BUCKINGHAM
Well, well, he was the covert’st shelter’d traitor
That ever liv’d.—
Would you imagine, or almost believe,—
Were’t not that by great preservation
We live to tell it you,—that the subtle traitor
This day had plotted, in the council-house,
To murder me and my good Lord of Gloster!
MAYOR
Had he done so?
GLOSTER
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,
Enforc’d us to this execution?
MAYOR
Now, fair befall you! he deserv’d his death;
And your good graces both have well proceeded,
To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
I never look’d for better at his hands
After he once fell in with Mistress Shore.
BUCKINGHAM
Yet had we not determin’d he should die
Until your lordship came to see his end;
Which now the loving haste of these our friends,
Something against our meanings, have 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
Misconster us in him, and wail his death.
MAYOR
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