Enter Lord Mayor, and Citizens.

Welcome my Lord. I dance attendance here;
I think, the Duke will not be spoke withal.
Enter Catesby.

Buck. Catesby, what fays your Lord to my request Cates. He doth intreat your Grace, my noble Lord, To vifit him to-morrow, or next day;

He is within, with two right-reverend fathers,

Divinely bent to meditation;

And in no worldly fuits would he be mov'd,

To draw him from his holy exercise.

Buck. Return, good Catesby, to the gracious Duke ;.
Tell him, myself, the Mayor and Aldermen,
In deep defigns, in matter of great moment,
No lefs importing than our gen'ral good,

Are come to have fome conf'rence with his Grace.
Catef. I'll fignify fo much unto him firait.

[Exit.

Buck. Ah, ah! my Lord, this Prince is not an Edward

He is not lolling on a lewd love-bed,
But on his knees at meditation:

Not dallying with a brace of curtezans,
But meditating with two deep divines:
Not fleeping, to engrofs his idle body,
But praying, to enrich his watchful foul.
Happy were England, would this virtuous Prince-
Take on his Grace the fov'reignty thereof;
But, fure, I fear, we shall not win him to it.

Mayor. Marry, God fhield, his Grace fhould fay us nay!
Buck. I fear he will; here Catesby comes again.

Enter Catesby.

Catesby, what fays.kis Grace?:

Catef, He wonders to what end you have assembled. Such troops of citizens to come to him,

His Grace not being warn'd thereof before:
He fears, my Lord, you mean no good to him..
Buck. Sorry I am, my noble coufin fhould

Suspect me, that I mean no good to him:

By

By heav'n, we come to him in perfect love,
And fo once more return, and tell his Grace.

When holy and devout religious men

[Exit Catesby.

Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence,
So fweet is zealous contemplation.

Enter Glocefter above, between two Bishops. Catefby

returns.

Mayor. See, where his Grace stands 'tween two clergy

men.

Buck. Two props of virtue, for a christian Prince, To ftay him from the fall of vanity: And fee, a book of prayer in his hand, True ornaments to know a holy man. Famous Plantagenet! most gracious Prince, Lend favourable ear to our requests & And pardon us the interruption

Of thy devotion and right-chriftian zeal.

Glo. My Lord, there needs no fuch apology;
I do befeech your Grace to pardon me,
Who, earnest in the fervice of my God,
Deferr'd the vifitation of my friends.

But leaving this, what is your Grace's pleasure ?

Buck. Ev'n that, I hope, which pleaseth God above, And all good men of this ungovern'd ifle.

Glo. I do fufpect, I have done fome offence,
That feems difgracious in the city's eye;
And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.

Buck. You have, my Lord: would it might please your

On our entreaties, to amend your fault.

[Grace,

Glo. Elfe wherefore breathe I in a chriftian land?
Buck. Know then, it is your fault that you refign

The fupream feat, the throne majeftical,
The scepter'd office of your ancestors,
Your ftate of fortune, and your due of birth,
The lineal glory of your royal houfe,
To the corruption of a blemish'd stock:

While in the mildness of your fleepy thoughts,
Which here we waken to our country's good,

The

The noble ifle doth want her proper

limbs :

Her face defac'd with fears of infamy,
Her royal flock graft with ignoble plants,
And almoft fhoulder'd in the fwallowing gulph
Of dark forgetfulness, and deep oblivion.
Which to re-cure, we heartily follicit
Your gracious felf to take on you the charge
And kingly government of this your land.
Not as Protector, fteward, fubftitute,
Or lowly factor for another's gain;
But as fucceffively, from blood to blood,
Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
For this, conforted with the citizens,
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement inftigation,

In this juft fuit come I to move your Grace.
Gle. I cannot tell, if to depart in filence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof,
Beft fitteth my degree, or your condition.
For not to anfwer, you might, haply, think,
Tongue-ty'd ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoke of fov'reignty,
Which fondly you would here impofe on me.
If to reprove you for this fuit of yours,
So feafon'd with your faithful love to me,
Then, on the other fide, I check'd my friends.
Therefore to speak, and to avoid the first,
And then, in fpeaking, not incur the laft,
Definitively thus I anfwer you.

Your love deferves my thanks; but my defert,
Unmeritable, fhuns your high request.
Firft, if all obftacles were cut away,
And that my path were even to the crown,
As the ripe revenue and due of birth ;
Yet fo much is my poverty of fpirit,
So mighty and fo many my defects,...

That I would rather hide me from my greatnefs,
Being a bark to brook no mighty fea;
Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
And in the vapour of my glory fmother'd.

But

But, God be thank'd, there is no need of me,
And much I need to help you, were there need
The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
Which, mellow'd by the ftealing hours of time,'
Will well become the feat of majesty;
And make us, doubtless, happy by his reign.
On him I lay what you would lay on me,
The right and fortune of his happy stars;
Which, God defend, that I fhould wring from him!
Buck. My Lord, this argues confcience in your Grace,
But the respects thereof are nice and trivial,

All circumftances well confidered.

You fay, that Edward is your brother's fon;
So fay we too, but not by Edward's wife:
For firft was he contract to Lady Lucy,
Your mother lives a witnefs to that vow;
And afterward by fubtitute betroth'd
To Bona, fifter to the King of France.
Thefe both put off, a poor petitioner,
A care-craz'd mother of a many children,
A beauty-waining, and diftreffed widow,
Ev'n in the afternoon of her best days,
Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye;
Seduc'd the pitch and height of all his thoughts.
To bafe declenfion and loath'd bigamy.

By her, in his unlawful bed, he got

This Edward, whom our manners call the Prince.
More bitterly could I expoftulate,

Save that for reverence of fome alive,

I give a fparing limit to my tongue,

Then, good my Lord, take to your royal felf
This proffer'd benefit of dignity:

If not to bless us and the land withal,
Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
From the corruption of abufing time,
Unto a lineal, true-derived course..

Mayor. Do, good my Lord, your citizens intreat you, Buck. Refufe not, mighty Lord, this proffer'd love. Catef. O make them joyful, grant their lawful fuật. Glo. Alas, why would you heap these cares on me?

L

I am unfit for ftate and majesty.

I do beseech you, take it not amifs;
I cannot, nor I will not yield to you.

Buck. If you refuse it, as in love and zeal,
Loth to depofe the child, your brother's fon,
(As well we know your tenderness of heart,
And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
And equally, indeed to all eftates)

Yet know, whe'r you accept our fuit or no,
Your brother's fon fhall never reign our King;
But we will plant fome other in the throne,
To the difgrace and downfall of your house:
And in this refolution here we leave you.
Come, citizens, we will intreat no more.

[Exeunt Catef. Call them again, fweet Prince, accept their fuit:

If you deny them, at the land will rue it.

Gle. Will you inforce me to a world of cares?
Call them again; I am not made of ftone, [Exit Catefby.
But penetrable to your kind entreaties ;
Albeit against my confcience and my foul.

Re enter Buckingham, and the rest.
Coufin of Buckingham, and fage, grave men,
Since you will buckle fortune on my back
To bear her burden, whether I will or no,
I must have patience to endure the load.
But if black fcandal, or foul-fac'd reproach
Attend the fequel of your impofition,
Your mere enforcement fhall acquittance me
From all the impure blots and ftains thereof.
For God doth know, and you may partly fee,
How far I am from the defire of this.

Mayor. God blefs your Grace! we fee it, and will fay it.
Glo. In faying fo, you fhall but fay the truth.
Buck. Then I falute you with this royal title,
Long live King Richard, England's worthy King!
All. Amen.

Buck. To-morrow may it please you to be crown'd? Gla. Ev'n when you pleafe, for you will have it fo

Ruck