1    How now, my lord, what say the citizens?

2    Now, by the holy mother of our Lord,
3    The citizens are mum and speak not a word.

4    Touch'd you the bastardy of Edward's children?

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

23   Ah! and did they so?

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

42   What tongueless blocks were they! would not they speak?

43   No, by my troth, my lord.

44   Will not the mayor then and his brethren come?

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

52   I go; and if you plead as well for them
53   As I can say nay to thee for myself,
54   No doubt well bring it to a happy issue.

55   Go, go, up to the leads; the lord mayor knocks.
Exit GLOUCESTER
Enter the Lord Mayor and Citizens
56   Welcome my lord; I dance attendance here;
57   I think the duke will not be spoke withal.
Enter CATESBY
58   Here comes his servant: how now, Catesby,
59   What says he?

60   My lord: he doth entreat your grace;
61   To visit him to-morrow or next day:
62   He is within, with two right reverend fathers,
63   Divinely bent to meditation;
64   And no worldly suit would he be moved,
65   To draw him from his holy exercise.

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

71   I'll tell him what you say, my lord.

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

82   Marry, God forbid his grace should say us nay!

83   I fear he will.
Re-enter CATESBY
84   How now, Catesby, what says your lord?

85   My lord,
86   He wonders to what end you have assembled
87   Such troops of citizens to speak with him,
88   His grace not being warn'd thereof before:
89   My lord, he fears you mean no good to him.

90   Sorry I am my noble cousin should
91   Suspect me, that I mean no good to him:
92   By heaven, I come in perfect love to him;
93   And so once more return and tell his grace.
Exit CATESBY
94   When holy and devout religious men
95   Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence,
96   So sweet is zealous contemplation.

97   See, where he stands between two clergymen!

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

106  My lord, there needs no such apology:
107  I rather do beseech you pardon me,
108  Who, earnest in the service of my God,
109  Neglect the visitation of my friends.
110  But, leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure?

111  Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above,
112  And all good men of this ungovern'd isle.

113  I do suspect I have done some offence
114  That seems disgracious in the city's eyes,
115  And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.

116  You have, my lord: would it might please your grace,
117  At our entreaties, to amend that fault!

118  Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?

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

143  I know not whether to depart in silence,
144  Or bitterly to speak in your reproof.
145  Best fitteth my degree or your condition
146  If not to answer, you might haply think
147  Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded
148  To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
149  Which fondly you would here impose on me;
150  If to reprove you for this suit of yours,
151  So season'd with your faithful love to me.
152  Then, on the other side, I cheque'd my friends.
153  Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first,
154  And then, in speaking, not to incur the last,
155  Definitively thus I answer you.
156  Your love deserves my thanks; but my desert
157  Unmeritable shuns your high request.
158  First if all obstacles were cut away,
159  And that my path were even to the crown,
160  As my ripe revenue and due by birth
161  Yet so much is my poverty of spirit,
162  So mighty and so many my defects,
163  As I had rather hide me from my greatness,
164  Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,
165  Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
166  And in the vapour of my glory smother'd.
167  But, God be thank'd, there's no need of me,
168  And much I need to help you, if need were;
169  The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
170  Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time,
171  Will well become the seat of majesty,
172  And make, no doubt, us happy by his reign.
173  On him I lay what you would lay on me,
174  The right and fortune of his happy stars;
175  Which God defend that I should wring from him!

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

203  Do, good my lord, your citizens entreat you.

204  Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love.

205  O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit!

206  Alas, why would you heap these cares on me?
207  I am unfit for state and majesty;
208  I do beseech you, take it not amiss;
209  I cannot nor I will not yield to you.

210  If you refuse it,--as, in love and zeal,
211  Loath to depose the child, Your brother's son;
212  As well we know your tenderness of heart
213  And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
214  Which we have noted in you to your kin,
215  And egally indeed to all estates,--
216  Yet whether you accept our suit or no,
217  Your brother's son shall never reign our king;
218  But we will plant some other in the throne,
219  To the disgrace and downfall of your house:
220  And in this resolution here we leave you.--
221  Come, citizens: 'zounds! I'll entreat no more.

222  O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham.

223  Call them again, my lord, and accept their suit.

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

225  Would you enforce me to a world of care?
226  Well, call them again. I am not made of stone,
227  But penetrable to your. kind entreats,
228  Albeit against my conscience and my soul.
Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and the rest
229  Cousin of Buckingham, and you sage, grave men,
230  Since you will buckle fortune on my back,
231  To bear her burthen, whether I will or no,
232  I must have patience to endure the load:
233  But if black scandal or foul-faced reproach
234  Attend the sequel of your imposition,
235  Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
236  From all the impure blots and stains thereof;
237  For God he knows, and you may partly see,
238  How far I am from the desire thereof.

239  God bless your grace! we see it, and will say it.

240  In saying so, you shall but say the truth.

241  Then I salute you with this kingly title:
242  Long live Richard, England's royal king!

243  Amen.

244  To-morrow will it please you to be crown'd?

245  Even when you please, since you will have it so.

246  To-morrow, then, we will attend your grace:
247  And so most joyfully we take our leave.

248  Come, let us to our holy task again.
249  Farewell, good cousin; farewell, gentle friends.