But meditating with two deep divines;
Not fleeping to ingrofs 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 thall not win him to it.
Mayor Marry, God fhield his Grace should fay us
Nay!
Buck. I fear he will. Here Catesby comes again.
Enter Catesby.
Catesby, what fays his Grace?
Catef. He wonders to what end you have affembled 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 Heav'n we come to him in perfect love;
And fo once more return, and tell his Grace.
When holy and devout religious men
Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence;
So sweet is zealous contemplation.
Enter Gloucester above, between two clergymen, Catelby
Mayor. See where his Grace ftands 'tween two clergymen.
Buck Two props of virtue for a Chriftian prince,
To stay him from the fall of vanity :
And fee a book of prayer in his hand,
True ornaments to know a holy man.
Famous Plantagenet! moft 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 such apology;
I do beseech 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 pleafeth 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 Grace,
On our intreaties, to amend your fault.
Glo. Elfe wherefore breathe I in a Chriftian land? Buck. Know then, it is your fault that you refign The fupreme feat, the throne majestical,
The scepter'd office of your ancestors,
Your ftate of fortune, and your due of birth,
The lineal glory of your royal house,
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 noble ifle doth want her proper limbs:
Her face defac'd with fears of infamy,
Her royal ftock graft with ignoble plants,
And almoft fhoulder'd into th' fwallowing gulph
Of dark forgetfulness, and deep oblivion:
Which to recure, we heartily folicit
Your gracious felf to take on you the charge
And kingly government of this your land:
Not as Protector, fteward, substitute,
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.
Glo. 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 answer, you might haply think
Tongue ty'd Ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoke of fovereignty,
Which fondly you would here impofe on me:
If to reprove you for this fuit of your's,
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 last,
Definitively thus I answer you.
Your love deferves my thanks; but my defert,
Unmeritable, thuns your high request.
Firft, if all obitacles were cut away,
And that my path were even to the crown,
As the ripe revenue and due of birth;
Yet to much is my poverty of fpirit,
So mighty and fo many my defects,
That I would rather hide me from my greatness,
Being a bark to brook no mighty fea,
Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
And in the vapour of my glory smother'd.
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, doubtlefs, 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 should wring from him!
Buck. My Lord, this argues confcience in your Grace.
But the refpects thereof are nice and trivial,
All circumstances 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 witness to that vow;
And afterward by substitute betroth'd
To Bona, filter to the King of France.
These both put off, a poor petitioner,
A care-craz'd mother of a many children.
A beauty weaning, 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 loth'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 some alive,
1 give a sparing 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 suit. Glo Alas! why would you heap these cares on me! I am unfit for ftate and majefty.
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 downfal 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, all the land will rue it.
Gle, Will you inforce me to a world of cares?
Call them again; ! am not made of stone,
But penetrable to your kind intreaties,
Albeit against my confcience and my foul.
Re-enter Buckingham, and the reft.
Coufin of Buckingham, and fage, grave men,
Since you will buckle Fortune on my back
To bear her burthen, whether i will or no,
I must have patience to endure the load.
But if black Scandal, or foul-fac'd Reproach,
Attend the fequel of your impofition,
Your mere inforcement 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 bless 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? Glo. Ev'n when you please, for you will have it fo. Buck. To-morrow then we will attend your Grace, And fo moft joyfully we take our leave.
Glo. Come, let us to our holy work again,
Farewel, my coufin; farewel, gentle friends. [Exeunt.
Enter the Queen, Duchess of York, and Marquis of Dorfet, at one door; Anne Duchess of Gloucefter, leading Lady Margaret Plantagenet, Clarence's young daughter, at the other,
WHO meets us here? my niece Planta
Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Glo'fter?
Now, for my life she's wand'ring to the Tower,
On pure heart's love, to greet the tender princes.
Daughter, well met.
Anne. God give your Graces both
A happy and a joyful time of day !
Queen. Sifter, well met; whither
Anne. No farther than the Tower; and as I guess,
Upon the like devotion as yourselves,
To gratulate the gentle princes there.
Queen. Kind fifter, thanks; we'll enter all together.
|