Say, uncle Gloster, if our brother come,Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?
GLOSTER
Where it seems best unto your royal self.
If I may counsel you, some day or two
Your highness shall repose you at the Tower:
Then where you please and shall be thought most fit
For your best health and recreation.
PRINCE
I do not like the Tower, of any place.—
Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?
BUCKINGHAM
He did, my gracious lord, begin that place;
Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.
PRINCE
Is it upon recórd, or else reported
Successively from age to age, he built it?
BUCKINGHAM
Upon recórd, my gracious lord.
PRINCE
But say, my lord, it were not register’d,
Methinks the truth should live from age to age,
As ‘twere retail’d to all posterity,
Even to the general all-ending day.
GLOSTER
[Aside]
So wise so young, they say, do never live long.
PRINCE
What say you, uncle?
GLOSTER
I say, without characters, fame lives long.—
[Aside]
Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,
I moralize two meanings in one word.
PRINCE
That Julius Caesar was a famous man;
With what his valour did enrich his wit,
His wit set down to make his valour live;
Death makes no conquest of this conqueror;
For now he lives in fame, though not in life.—
I’ll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham,—
BUCKINGHAM
What, my gracious lord?
PRINCE
An if I live until I be a man,
I’ll win our ancient right in France again,
Or die a soldier as I liv’d a king.
GLOSTER
[Aside]
Short summers lightly have a forward spring.
BUCKINGHAM
Now, in good time, here comes the Duke of York.
[Enter YORK, HASTINGS, and the CARDINAL.]
PRINCE
Richard of York! how fares our loving brother?
YORK
Well, my dread lord; so must I call you now.
PRINCE
Ay brother,—to our grief, as it is yours:
Too late he died that might have kept that title,
Which by his death hath lost much majesty.
GLOSTER
How fares our cousin, noble Lord of York?
YORK
I thank you, gentle uncle. O, my lord,
You said that idle weeds are fast in growth:
The prince my brother hath outgrown me far.
GLOSTER
He hath, my lord.
YORK
And therefore is he idle?
GLOSTER
O, my fair cousin, I must not say so.
YORK
Then he is more beholding to you than I.
GLOSTER
He may command me as my sovereign;
But you have power in me as in a kinsman.
YORK
I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger.
GLOSTER
My dagger, little cousin? with all my heart!
PRINCE
A beggar, brother?
YORK
Of my kind uncle, that I know will give,
And being but a toy, which is no grief to give.
GLOSTER
A greater gift than that I’ll give my cousin.
YORK
A greater gift! O, that’s the sword to it!
GLOSTER
Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough.
YORK
O, then, I see you will part but with light gifts;
In weightier things you’ll say a beggar nay.
GLOSTER
It is too heavy for your grace to wear.
YORK
I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.
GLOSTER
What, would you have my weapon, little lord?
