Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

Purf. I thank your Honour,

Enter à Prieft.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small]

Prieft. Well met, my Lord, I'm glad to fee your Honour. Haft. I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my heart; I'm in your debt for your last exercife:

Come the next fabbath, and I will content you.

[blocks in formation]

THe whispers.

Buck. What, talking with a priest, Lord Chamberlain?" Your friends at Pomfret they do need the priest, Your Honour hath no fhriving work in hand.

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

[ocr errors]

Buck. I do, my Lord, but long I shall not stay : hall return before your Lordship thence.

Haft. Nay, like enough, for I ftay dinner there. Buck. And fupper too, altho' thou know't it not. [Afide.. Come, will you go?

Haft. I'll wait upon your Lordship.

[Exeunt..

SCENE changes to Pomfret-Caftle..

Enter Sir Richard Ratcliff, with halberds, carrying Lord Rivers, Lord Richard Gray, and Sir Thomas Vaughan to Death.

Rat. Ome, bring forth the prifoners.

[ocr errors]

Riv. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this. To-day fhalt thou behold a fubject die

For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.

Gray. God keep the Prince from all the pack of

A knot you are of damned blood-fuckers.

you

Vaugh. You live, that fhall cry woe for this hereafter. Rat. Difpatch; the limit of your lives is out. (13)

Riv.

(13) Vaugh. "You live, that shall cry woe for this hereafter. Rat. Dispatch; the limit of your lives is out.] These two lines Mr, Pope has thought fit to fupprefs in his editions, for what reafon I can't pretend to fay; tho' they have the authority both of the old

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

Within the guilty closure of thy walls

Richard the fecond, here, was hack'd to death:
And, for more flander to thy difmal feat,
We give to thee our guiltless blood to drink.

Gray. Now Margret's cu fe is fall'n upon our heads,
When the exclaim'd on Haftings, you, and I, (14)
For ftanding by when Richard ftab'd her fon.

Riv. Then curs'd fhe Richard, curs'd fhe Buckingham,
Then curs'd the Haftings. O remember, God!
To hear her prayer for them, as now for us:
As for my filter and her princely fons,

Be fatisfy'd, dear God, with our true blood;
Which, as thou know'ft, unjustly must be fpilt.
Rat. Make hafte, the hour of death is now expir'd.
Riv. Come, Gray; come, Vaughan; let us all embrace;
Farewel, until we meet again in heaven. [Exeunt.

SCENE, The Tower.

Buckingham, Stanley, Haftings, Bishop of Ely, Catesby, Lovel, with others, at a table.

Haft. NOW, noble Peers, the caufe why we are met

determine of the coronation : In God's name fpeak, when is the royal day? Buck. Are all things ready for that royal time? Stanl. They are, and want but nomination. Ely. To-morrow then I judge a happy day. Buck. Who knows the Lord Protector's mind herein? Who is most inward with the noble Duke?

Ely.YourGrace, we think,should fooneft knowhis mind. Buck. We know each other's faces; for our hearts,

folio's, and are likewife in Mr. Rowe, whom he feems generally to follow. Without them, I would obferve, that Sir Thomas Vaughan is introduced, and led off to die, without a fingle fyllable fpoken by him.

(14) When he exclaim'd on Hastings, you, and I,] This verse is likewife tacitly fupprefs'd by Mr. Pope, tho' it has the same authorities as the former..

[blocks in formation]

He knows no more of mine, than I of yours;
Nor of his, my Lord, than you of mine:
Lord Haflings, you and he are near in love,

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

I have not founded him; nor he deliver'd
His gracious pleafure 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 prefume, he'll take in gentle part.

Enter Glocester.

Ely. In happy time here comes the Duke himself.
Glo. My noble Lords and coufins all, good-morrow;
I have been long a fleeper; but, I truft,
My abfence doth neglect no great defign;

Which by my prefence might have been concluded.
Buck. Had you not come upon your cue, my Lord,
William Lord Haflings had pronounc'd your part;
I mean, your voice for crowning of the King.

Glo. Than my Lord Haftings no man might be bolder,
His Lordfhip knows me well, and loves me well.
My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn,
I law good ftrawberries in your garden there;
I do beseech you, fend for some of them.

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

[Exit Ely. Glo. Coufin of Buckingham, a word with you.. Catefay hath founded Haftings in our bufinefs, And finds the tefty gentleman, fo hot, That he will lofe his head, ere give confent, His mafter's fon, as worshipfully he terms it, Shall lose the royalty of England's throne.

Back. Withdraw yourfelf awhile, I'll go with you.
[Exe. Glo. and Buck.
Stani, We have not yet fet down this day of triumph:
To-morrow, in my judgment, is too fudden;

For I myself am not fo well provided,
As elfe I would be, were the day prolong'd.

Re-enter

Re-enter Bishop of Ely.

Ely. Where is my Lord the Duke of Glocefter ? I have fent for thefe ftrawberries.

[morning; Haft. His Grace looks chearfully and smooth this: There's fome conceit, or other, likes him well, When that he bids good-morrow with fuch fpirit. I think, there's ne'er a man in christendom (15) T Can leffer hide his love, or hate, than he;i For by his face ftrait fhall you know his heart.

Stanl. What of his heart perceive you in his face, By any likelihood he fhew'd to-day?

Haft. Marry, that with no man here he is offended: For were he, he had fhewn it in his looks.

Re-enter Glocefter and Buckingham.

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

Haft. The tender love I bear your Grace, my Lord,
Makes me moft forward in this princely prefence,.
To doom th' offenders, whofoe'er they be:

I fay, my Lord, they have deferved death.

Glo. Then be your eyes the witness of their evil;
Look, how I am bewitch'd; behold, mine arm
Is, like a blafted fapling, wither'd up:

And this is Edward's wife, that monftrous witch,
Conforted with that harlot, ftrumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have marked me. ba
Haft. If they have done this deed, my noble Lord.--
Glo. If thou protector of this damned trumpet,
Talk'st thou to me of Ifs? thou art a traitor 3).
Off with his head-now, by St. Paul I fwear,

(15) I think, there's ne'er a man in christendom

Can leffer hide bis love, or hate, than be;

Eor by bis face frait skall you know his heart] The character here, given of Richard, (tho' very falfly) exactly tallies with a fragment from one of Ennius's tragedies, quoted by Nonius Marcellus.

[ocr errors]

Eo Ego ingeniô

-Natus fum, Amicitiam atque Inimicitiam in frontem promptamgero.

>

I will not dine until I fee the fame.
Lovel, and Catesby,-look, that it be done: (16)
The reft, that love me, rife and follow me.

[Exeunt: Manent Lovel and Catesby, with the Lord Haftings..

Haft. Woe, woe for England, not a whit for me,-
For I, too fond, might have prevented this:
Stanley did dream, the boar did raise our helms ;
But I did fcorn it, and difdain to fly;

Three times to-day my foot-cloth horfe did ftumble,
And started when he look'd upon the Tower;
As loth to bear me to the flaughter-house..
O, now I need the priest that fpake to me:
I now repent, I told the purfuivant,
As too triumphing, how mine enemies
To-day at Pomfret bloodily were butcher'd,
And I myself fecure in grice and favour.
Oh, Margret, Margret, now thy heavy curfe
Is lighted on poor Haftings' wretched head.

[dinner,
Catef. Come, come, difpatch; the Duke would be at
Make a fhort fhrift, he longs to fee. your head.
Haft. 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 failor oh a maît,

Ready with every nod to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deeptov.

Lov. Come, come, dispatch, dis bootless to exclaim
Haft. Oh, bloody Richard! miferable England!"
I prophefy the fearful'ft time to thee,

That ever wretched age hath look'd upon.

[ocr errors]

(16) Lovel and Ratcliff, Look that it be done. There are two things to be obferv'd, which will warrant the variation. I have made upon. this paffage The fcene is here in the Tower and Lord Hapings was cut off on that very day, when Rivers, Gray and Vaughan fuffer'd at Pomfret. How then could Ratcliff at the fame inftant be both in Yorkshire and the Tower? In the very fcene proceding this, we find him conducting thofe gentlemen to the block. The players in their edition first made the blunder, as to Ratcliff attending Lord Haftings to death for, in the old quarto, we find it rightly ;

Manet Catesby with Haftings.

-Exeunt :

Come,

« EdellinenJatka »