Act III, Scene 7

Baynard’s Castle.

[Enter GLOUCESTER and BUCKINGHAM, at several doors]

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). How now, my lord, what say the citizens?

• Duke of Buckingham. Now, by the holy mother of our Lord,
  The citizens are mum and speak not a word.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Touch'd you the bastardy of Edward's children? 2205

• Duke of Buckingham. I did; with his contract with Lady Lucy,
  And his contract by deputy in France;
  The insatiate greediness of his desires,
  And his enforcement of the city wives;
  His tyranny for trifles; his own bastardy, 2210
  As being got, your father then in France,
  His resemblance, being not like the duke;
  Withal I did infer your lineaments,
  Being the right idea of your father,
  Both in your form and nobleness of mind; 2215
  Laid open all your victories in Scotland,
  Your dicipline in war, wisdom in peace,
  Your bounty, virtue, fair humility:
  Indeed, left nothing fitting for the purpose
  Untouch'd, or slightly handled, in discourse 2220
  And when mine oratory grew to an end
  I bid them that did love their country's good
  Cry 'God save Richard, England's royal king!'

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Ah! and did they so?

• Duke of Buckingham. No, so God help me, they spake not a word; 2225
  But, like dumb statues or breathing stones,
  Gazed each on other, and look'd deadly pale.
  Which when I saw, I reprehended them;
  And ask'd the mayor what meant this wilful silence:
  His answer was, the people were not wont 2230
  To be spoke to but by the recorder.
  Then he was urged to tell my tale again,
  'Thus saith the duke, thus hath the duke inferr'd;'
  But nothing spake in warrant from himself.
  When he had done, some followers of mine own, 2235
  At the lower end of the hall, hurl'd up their caps,
  And some ten voices cried 'God save King Richard!'
  And thus I took the vantage of those few,
  'Thanks, gentle citizens and friends,' quoth I;
  'This general applause and loving shout 2240
  Argues your wisdoms and your love to Richard:'
  And even here brake off, and came away.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). What tongueless blocks were they! would not they speak?

• Duke of Buckingham. No, by my troth, my lord.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Will not the mayor then and his brethren come? 2245

• Duke of Buckingham. The mayor is here at hand: intend some fear;
  Be not you spoke with, but by mighty suit:
  And look you get a prayer-book in your hand,
  And stand betwixt two churchmen, good my lord;
  For on that ground I'll build a holy descant: 2250
  And be not easily won to our request:
  Play the maid's part, still answer nay, and take it.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). I go; and if you plead as well for them
  As I can say nay to thee for myself,
  No doubt well bring it to a happy issue. 2255

• Duke of Buckingham. Go, go, up to the leads; the lord mayor knocks.
  [Exit GLOUCESTER]
  [Enter the Lord Mayor and Citizens]
  Welcome my lord; I dance attendance here;
  I think the duke will not be spoke withal. 2260
  [Enter CATESBY]
  Here comes his servant: how now, Catesby,
  What says he?

• Sir William Catesby. My lord: he doth entreat your grace;
  To visit him to-morrow or next day: 2265
  He is within, with two right reverend fathers,
  Divinely bent to meditation;
  And no worldly suit would he be moved,
  To draw him from his holy exercise.

• Duke of Buckingham. Return, good Catesby, to thy lord again; 2270
  Tell him, myself, the mayor and citizens,
  In deep designs and matters of great moment,
  No less importing than our general good,
  Are come to have some conference with his grace.

• Sir William Catesby. I'll tell him what you say, my lord. 2275

[Exit]

• Duke of Buckingham. Ah, ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward!
  He is not lolling on a lewd day-bed,
  But on his knees at meditation;
  Not dallying with a brace of courtezans, 2280
  But meditating with two deep divines;
  Not sleeping, to engross his idle body,
  But praying, to enrich his watchful soul:
  Happy were England, would this gracious prince
  Take on himself the sovereignty thereof: 2285
  But, sure, I fear, we shall ne'er win him to it.

• Lord Mayor of London. Marry, God forbid his grace should say us nay!

• Duke of Buckingham. I fear he will.
  [Re-enter CATESBY]
  How now, Catesby, what says your lord? 2290

• Sir William Catesby. My lord,
  He wonders to what end you have assembled
  Such troops of citizens to speak with him,
  His grace not being warn'd thereof before:
  My lord, he fears you mean no good to him. 2295

• Duke of Buckingham. Sorry I am my noble cousin should
  Suspect me, that I mean no good to him:
  By heaven, I come in perfect love to him;
  And so once more return and tell his grace.
  [Exit CATESBY] 2300
  When holy and devout religious men
  Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence,
  So sweet is zealous contemplation.
  [Enter GLOUCESTER aloft, between two Bishops.]
  CATESBY returns] 2305

• Lord Mayor of London. See, where he stands between two clergymen!

• Duke of Buckingham. Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
  To stay him from the fall of vanity:
  And, see, a book of prayer in his hand,
  True ornaments to know a holy man. 2310
  Famous Plantagenet, most gracious prince,
  Lend favourable ears to our request;
  And pardon us the interruption
  Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). My lord, there needs no such apology: 2315
  I rather do beseech you pardon me,
  Who, earnest in the service of my God,
  Neglect the visitation of my friends.
  But, leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure?

• Duke of Buckingham. Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above, 2320
  And all good men of this ungovern'd isle.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). I do suspect I have done some offence
  That seems disgracious in the city's eyes,
  And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.

• Duke of Buckingham. You have, my lord: would it might please your grace, 2325
  At our entreaties, to amend that fault!

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?

• Duke of Buckingham. Then know, it is your fault that you resign
  The supreme seat, the throne majestical,
  The scepter'd office of your ancestors, 2330
  Your state of fortune and your due of birth,
  The lineal glory of your royal house,
  To the corruption of a blemished stock:
  Whilst, in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,
  Which here we waken to our country's good, 2335
  This noble isle doth want her proper limbs;
  Her face defaced with scars of infamy,
  Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,
  And almost shoulder'd in the swallowing gulf
  Of blind forgetfulness and dark oblivion. 2340
  Which to recure, we heartily solicit
  Your gracious self to take on you the charge
  And kingly government of this your land,
  Not as protector, steward, substitute,
  Or lowly factor for another's gain; 2345
  But as successively from blood to blood,
  Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
  For this, consorted with the citizens,
  Your very worshipful and loving friends,
  And by their vehement instigation, 2350
  In this just suit come I to move your grace.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). I know not whether to depart in silence,
  Or bitterly to speak in your reproof.
  Best fitteth my degree or your condition
  If not to answer, you might haply think 2355
  Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded
  To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
  Which fondly you would here impose on me;
  If to reprove you for this suit of yours,
  So season'd with your faithful love to me. 2360
  Then, on the other side, I cheque'd my friends.
  Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first,
  And then, in speaking, not to incur the last,
  Definitively thus I answer you.
  Your love deserves my thanks; but my desert 2365
  Unmeritable shuns your high request.
  First if all obstacles were cut away,
  And that my path were even to the crown,
  As my ripe revenue and due by birth
  Yet so much is my poverty of spirit, 2370
  So mighty and so many my defects,
  As I had rather hide me from my greatness,
  Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,
  Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
  And in the vapour of my glory smother'd. 2375
  But, God be thank'd, there's no need of me,
  And much I need to help you, if need were;
  The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
  Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time,
  Will well become the seat of majesty, 2380
  And make, no doubt, us 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!

• Duke of Buckingham. My lord, this argues conscience in your grace; 2385
  But the respects thereof are nice and trivial,
  All circumstances well considered.
  You say that Edward is your brother's son:
  So say we too, but not by Edward's wife;
  For first he was contract to Lady Lucy— 2390
  Your mother lives a witness to that vow—
  And afterward by substitute betroth'd
  To Bona, sister to the King of France.
  These both put by a poor petitioner,
  A care-crazed mother of a many children, 2395
  A beauty-waning and distressed widow,
  Even in the afternoon of her best days,
  Made prize and purchase of his lustful eye,
  Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts
  To base declension and loathed bigamy 2400
  By her, in his unlawful bed, he got
  This Edward, whom our manners term the prince.
  More bitterly could I expostulate,
  Save that, for reverence to some alive,
  I give a sparing limit to my tongue. 2405
  Then, good my lord, take to your royal self
  This proffer'd benefit of dignity;
  If non to bless us and the land withal,
  Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
  From the corruption of abusing times, 2410
  Unto a lineal true-derived course.

• Lord Mayor of London. Do, good my lord, your citizens entreat you.

• Duke of Buckingham. Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love.

• Sir William Catesby. O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit!

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Alas, why would you heap these cares on me? 2415
  I am unfit for state and majesty;
  I do beseech you, take it not amiss;
  I cannot nor I will not yield to you.

• Duke of Buckingham. If you refuse it,—as, in love and zeal,
  Loath to depose the child, Your brother's son; 2420
  As well we know your tenderness of heart
  And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
  Which we have noted in you to your kin,
  And egally indeed to all estates,—
  Yet whether you accept our suit or no, 2425
  Your brother's son shall never reign our king;
  But we will plant some other in the throne,
  To the disgrace and downfall of your house:
  And in this resolution here we leave you.—
  Come, citizens: 'zounds! I'll entreat no more. 2430

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham.

[Exit BUCKINGHAM with the Citizens]

• Sir William Catesby. Call them again, my lord, and accept their suit.

• Another. Do, good my lord, lest all the land do rue it.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Would you enforce me to a world of care? 2435
  Well, call them again. I am not made of stone,
  But penetrable to your. kind entreats,
  Albeit against my conscience and my soul.
  [Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and the rest]
  Cousin of Buckingham, and you sage, grave men, 2440
  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-faced reproach
  Attend the sequel of your imposition, 2445
  Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
  From all the impure blots and stains thereof;
  For God he knows, and you may partly see,
  How far I am from the desire thereof.

• Lord Mayor of London. God bless your grace! we see it, and will say it. 2450

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). In saying so, you shall but say the truth.

• Duke of Buckingham. Then I salute you with this kingly title:
  Long live Richard, England's royal king!

• Lord Mayor of London. [with citizens] Amen.

• Duke of Buckingham. To-morrow will it please you to be crown'd? 2455

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Even when you please, since you will have it so.

• Duke of Buckingham. To-morrow, then, we will attend your grace:
  And so most joyfully we take our leave.

• Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Come, let us to our holy task again.
  Farewell, good cousin; farewell, gentle friends. 2460

[Exeunt]