And I in better state than ere I was. Purs. God hold it, to your honour's good content! Hast. Gramercy, fellow: There, drink that for me. Purs. I thank your honour. [Throws him his Purse. [Exit Pursuivant. Enter a Priest. Priest. Well met, my lord; I am glad to see your honour. Hast. I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my heart. I am in your debt for your last exercise; Come the next sabbath, and I will content you. Enter BUCKINGHAM. 310 Buck. What, talking with a priest, lord chamberlain ? Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest; Hast. Good faith, and when I met this holy man, Buck. I do, my lord; but long I shall not stay there : I shall return before your lordship thence. 320 Hast. Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there. Buck. And supper too, although thou know'st it not. Come, will you go? [Aside. Hast. I'll wait upon your lordship. [Exeunt. SCENE SCENE III. Before Pomfret-Castle. Enter Sir RICHARD RATCLIFF, conducting Lord RIVERS, Lord RICHARD GREY, and Sir THOMAS VAUGHAN, to Execution. Rat. Come, bring forth the prisoners. Riv. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee thisTo-day shalt thou behold a subject die, For truth, for duty, and for loyalty. Grey. God keep the prince from all the pack of you! A knot you are of damned blood-suckers. 330 Vaugh. You live, that shall cry woe for this hereafter. Rat. Dispatch; the limit of your lives is out. Riv. O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison, Fatal and ominous to noble peers! Within the guilty closure of thy walls, Richard the second here was hack'd to death: And, for more slander to thy dismal seat, We give thee up our guiltlesss blood to drink. Grey. Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon our heads, When she exclaim'd on Hastings, you, and I, 340 For standing by when Richard stabb'd her son. Riv. Then curs'd she Hastings, curs'd she Buck ingham, Then curs'd she Richard:-0, remember, God, To hear her prayer for them, as now for us! As As for my sister, and her princely sons— Be satisfied, dear God, with our true bloods, embrace: 349 Farewel, until we meet again in heaven. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The Tower. BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, Bishop of ELY, CATESBY, LOVEL, with others, at a Table. Hast. Now, noble peers, the cause why we are met Is to determine of the coronation : In God's name, speak, when is the royal day? Who is most inward with the noble duke? Ely. Your grace, we think, should soonest know his mind. Buck. : We know each other's faces for our He knows no more of mine, than I of your's; 361 Lord Lord Hastings, you and he are near in love. Hast. I thank his grace, I know he loves me well: But, for his purpose in the coronation, I have not sounded him, nor he deliver'd But you, my noble lord, may name the time Enter GLOSTER. 370 Ely. In happy time, here comes the duke himself. Glo. My noble lords and cousins, all good morrow: I have been long a sleeper; but, I trust, My absence doth neglect no great design, Which by my presence might have been concluded. Buck. Had you not come upon your cue, my lord, William lord Hastings had pronounc'd your part— I mean, your voice-for crowning of the king. Glo. Than my lord Hastings, no man might be bolder; 381 His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.- [Exit ELY. That he will lose his head, ere give consent 390 His master's child, as worshipfully he terms it, To-morrow, in my judgment, is too sudden; Re-enter Bishop of ELY. Ely. Where is my lord protector? I have sent For these strawberries. Hast. His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning; 401 There's some conceit or other likes him well, Hast. Marry, that with no man here he is offended; For, were he, he had shewn it in his looks. Re-enter GLOSTER, and BUCKINGHAM. Glo. I pray you all, tell me what they deserve, Hij 411 Hast. |