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The king enacts more wonders than a man,
Daring an opposite to every danger:
His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights,
Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death.
Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!

Alarums. Enter KING RICHARD.

K. Rich. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

Cate. Withdraw, my lord; I'll help you to a horse.

K. Rich. Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,

And I will stand the hazard of the die:
I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
Five have I slain to-day instead of him.
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

ΙΟ

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. Another part of the field. Alarum.

Enter RICHARD and RICHMOND: they fight. RICHARD is slain, Retreat and flourish. Re-enter RICHMOND, DERBY bearing the crown, with divers other Lords.

Richm. God and your arms be praised, victorious friends;

The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.

Der. Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee.

Lo, here, this long-usurped royalty

From the dead temples of this bloody wretch

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Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.

Richm What men of name are slain on either side?

Der. John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Ferrers,

Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon. Richm. Inter their bodies as becomes their births:

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Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled
That in submission will return to us:
And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,
We will unite the white rose and the red:
Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
That long have frown'd upon their enmity!
What traitor hears me, and says not amen?
England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself;
The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
The father rashly slaughter'd his own son,
The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire:
All this divided York and Lancaster,
Divided in their dire division,

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9, now, let Richmond and Elizabeth,
The true succeeders of each royal house,
By God's fair ordinance conjoin together!
And let their heirs, God, if thy will be so,
Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced
peace,

With smiling plenty and fair prosperous days!
Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
That would reduce these bloody days again,
And make poor England weep in streams of
blood!

Let them not live to taste this land's increase That would with treason wound this fair land's peace!

Now civil wounds are stopp'd, peace lives again: That she may long live here, God say amen!

[Exeunt.

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I COME no more to make you laugh: things now,
That bear a weighty and a serious brow,
Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe,
Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow,
We now present. Those that can pity, here
May, if they think it well, let fall a tear;
The subject will deserve it. Such as give
Their money out of hope they may believe,
May here find truth too. Those that come to see
Only a show or two, and so agree

The play may pass, if they be still and willing,
I'll undertake may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours. Only they

ΙΟ

That come to hear a merry bawdy play,
A noise of targets, or to see a fellow
In a long motley coat guarded with yellow,
Will be deceived; for, gentle hearers, know,
To rank our chosen truth with such a show
As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting
Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring,
To make that only true we now intend,
Will leave us never an understanding friend.
Therefore, for goodness' sake, and as you are
known

The first and happiest hearers of the town,
Be sad, as we would make ye: think ye see
The very persons of our noble story

As they were living: think you see them great,
And follow'd with the general throng and sweat
Of thousand friends; then in a moment, see
How soon this mightiness meets m'sery:
And, if you can be merry then, I'll say
A man may weep upon his wedding-day..

21

ACT I.

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30

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21

Shone down the English; and, to-morrow, they
Made Britain India: every man that stood
Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubins, all gilt: the madams too,
Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them, that their very labour
Was to them as a painting: now this masque
Was cried incomparable; and the ensuing night
Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings,
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them; him in eye,
Still him in praise: and, being present both,
'Twas said they saw but one; and no discerner
Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these

suns

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Nor.
There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends;
For, being not propp'd by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way, nor call'd upon
For high feats done to the crown; neither allied
To eminent assistants; but, spider-like,
tOut of his self-drawing web, he gives us note,
The force of his own merit makes his way;
A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
A place next to the king.

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Aber. A proper title of a peace; and purchased At a superfluous rate!

Buck

Why, all this business
Our reverend cardinal carried.
Nor.

Like it your grace, 100
The state takes notice of the private difference
Betwixt you and the cardinal. I advise you→
And take it from a heart that wishes towards you
Honour and plenteous safety-that you read
The cardinal's malice and his potency
Together; to consider further that
What his high hatred would effect wants not
A minister in his power. You know his nature,
That he's revengeful, and I know his sword
Hath a sharp edge: it's long and, 't may be said,
It reaches far, and where 'twill not extend,
Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel,
You'll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes that
rock
That I advise your shunning.

III

Enter CARDINAL WOLSEY, the purse borne before him, certain of the Guard, and two Secretaries with papers. The CARDINAL in his passage fixeth his eye on BUCKINGHAM, and BUCKINGHAM on him, both full of disdain. Wol. The Duke of Buckingham's surveyor, What heaven hath given him,-let some graver Where's his examination? Here, so please you. Wol. Is he in person ready? First Secr.

Aber.

eye

I cannot tell

Pierce into that; but I can see his pride

Peep through each part of him: whence has he
that,

If not from hell? the devil is a niggard,
Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.

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70

Upon this French going out, took he upon him,
Without the privity o' the king, to appoint
Who should attend on him? He makes up the file

First Secr.

ha?

Ay, please your grace.
Wol. Well, we shall then know more; and
Buckingham
Shall lessen this big look.

[Exeunt Wolsey and his Train. Buck. This butcher's cur is venom-mouth'd, and I

120

Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best
Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar's book

Outworths a noble's blood.
Nor.

What, are you chafed? Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance only

Which your disease requires.

Buck.

I read in's looks
Matter against me; and his eye reviled
Me, as his abject object: at this instant

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To whisper Wolsey,-here makes visitation:
His fears were, that the interview betwixt
England and France might, through their amity,
Breed him some prejudice; for from this league
Peep'd harms that menaced him: he privily
Deals with our cardinal; and, as I trow,-
Which I do well; for I am sure the emperor
Paid ere he promised; whereby his suit was granted

He bores me with some trick: he's gone to the Ere it was ask'd; but when the way was made,

king;

I'll follow and outstare him.

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Nor.
Stay, my lord,
And let your reason with your choler question
What 'tis you go about: to climb steep hills
Requires slow pace at first: anger is like
A full-hot horse, who being allow'd his way,
Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
Can advise me like you: be to yourself
As you would to your friend.
Buck.
I'll to the king;
And from a mouth of honour quite cry down
This Ipswich fellow's insolence; or proclaim
There's difference in no persons.
Be advised;
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself: we may outrun,
By violent swiftness, that which we run at,
And lose by over-running. Know you not,
The fire that mounts the liquor till't run o'er,
In seeming to augment it wastes it? Be advised:
I say again, there is no English soul
More stronger to direct you than yourself,
If with the sap of reason you would quench,
Or but allay, the fire of passion.

Nor.

Buck.

140

Sir,

I am thankful to you; and I'll go along

150

By your prescription: but this top-proud fellow,
Whom from the flow of gall I name not but
From sincere motions, by intelligence,

And proofs as clear as founts in July when
We see each grain of gravel, I do know
To be corrupt and treasonous.

Say not 'treasonous.'

Nor.
Buck. To the king I'll say't; and make my

vouch as strong

160

As shore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,
Or wolf, or both,-for he is equal ravenous
As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief
As able to perform't; his mind and place
Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally-
Only to show his pomp as well in France
As here at home, suggests the king our master
To this last costly treaty, the interview,
That swallow'd so much treasure, and like a glass
Did break i' the rinsing.
Nor.

Faith, and so it did.

Buck. Pray, give me favour, sir. This cunning cardinal

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The articles o' the combination drew
As himself pleased; and they were ratified
As he cried 'Thus let be': to as much end
As give a crutch to the dead: but our count-
cardinal

Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolsey,
Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows,-
Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy

To the old dam, treason,-Charles the emperor,
Under pretence to see the queen his aunt,-
For 'twas indeed his colour, but he came

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SCENE II. The same. Cornets.

The council-chamber.
Enter the KING, leaning on the
CARDINAL'S shoulder, the Nobles, and SIR
THOMAS LOVELL; the CARDINAL places him-
self under the KING'S feet on his right side.
King. My life itself, and the best heart of it,
Thanks you for this great care: I stood i' the
level

Of a full-charged confederacy, and give thanks
To you that choked it. Let be call'd before us
That gentleman of Buckingham's; in person
I'll hear him his confessions justify;
And point by point the treasons of his master
He shall again relate.

A noise within, crying 'Room for the Queen!'
Enter QUEEN KATHARINE, ushered by the
DUKE OF NORFOLK, and the DUKE OF SUF-
FOLK: she kneels.
The KING riseth from his
state, takes her up, kisses and placeth her by

him.

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Sent down among 'em, which hath flaw'd the
heart

Of all their loyalties: wherein, although,
My good lord cardinal, they vent reproaches
Most bitterly on you, as putter on

Of these exactions, yet the king our master-
Whose honour heaven shield from soil!-even he
escapes not

Language unmannerly, yea, such which breaks
The sides of loyalty, and almost appears
In loud rebellion.

Nor.
Not almost appears,
It doth appear; for, upon these taxations,
The clothiers all, not able to maintain
The many to them longing, have put off
The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who,
Unfit for other life, compell'd by hunger
And lack of other means, in desperate manner
Daring the event to the teeth, are all in uproar,
And danger serves among them.

Taxation!

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I have no further gone in this than by
A single voice; and that not pass'd me but
By learned approbation of the judges. If I am
Traduced by ignorant tongues, which neither
know

My faculties nor person, yet will be

The chronicles of my doing, let me say
'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through. We must not

stint

.Our necessary actions, in the fear

To cope malicious censurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
That is new-trimm'd, but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is

30 Not ours, or not allow'd; what worst, as oft,
Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
For our best act. If we shall stand still,
In fear our motion will be mock'd or carp'd at,
We should take root here where we sit, or sit
State-statues only.
King

King.
Wherein? and what taxation? My lord cardinal,
You that are blamed for it alike with us,
Know you of this taxation?

Wol.

Please you, sir,
I know but of a single part, in aught
Pertains to the state; and front but in that file
Where others tell steps with me.
Q. Kath.

No, my lord,

80

go

Things done well,
And with a care, exempt themselves from fear;
Things done without example, in their issue
Are to be fear'd. Have you a precedent
Of this commission? I believe, not any.
We must not rend our subjects from our laws,
40 And stick them in our will. Sixth part of each?
A trembling contribution! Why, we take
From every tree lop, bark, and part o' the timber;
And, though we leave it with a root, thus hack'd,
The air will drink the sap. To every county

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