to claim the crown.
KING RICHARD
Is the chair empty? is the sword unsway’d?
Is the king dead? the empire unpossess’d?
What heir of York is there alive but we?
And who is England’s king but great York’s heir?
Then tell me, what makes he upon the seas?
STANLEY
Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess.
KING RICHARD
Unless for that he comes to be your liege,
You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes.
Thou wilt revolt and fly to him, I fear.
STANLEY
No, mighty leige; therefore mistrust me not.
KING RICHARD
Where is thy power, then, to beat him back?
Where be thy tenants and thy followers?
Are they not now upon the western shore,
Safe-conducting the rebels from their ships?
STANLEY
No, my good lord, my friends are in the north.
KING RICHARD
Cold friends to me: what do they in the north,
When they should serve their sovereign in the west?
STANLEY
They have not been commanded, mighty king:
Pleaseth your majesty to give me leave,
I’ll muster up my friends, and meet your grace
Where and what time your majesty shall please.
KING RICHARD
Ay, ay, thou wouldst be gone to join with Richmond;
But I’ll not trust thee.
STANLEY
Most mighty sovereign,
You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful:
I never was nor never will be false.
KING RICHARD
Go, then, and muster men. But leave behind
Your son, George Stanley: look your heart be firm,
Or else his head’s assurance is but frail.
STANLEY
So deal with him as I prove true to you.
[Exit.]
[Enter a MESSENGER.]
MESSENGER
My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire,
As I by friends am well advértisèd,
Sir Edward Courtney, and the haughty prelate,
Bishop of Exeter, his elder brother,
With many more confederates, are in arms.
[Enter a second MESSENGER.]
SECOND MESSENGER
In Kent, my liege, the Guilfords are in arms;
And every hour more competitors
Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong.
[Enter a third MESSENGER.]
THIRD MESSENGER
My lord, the army of great Buckingham,—
KING RICHARD
Out on you, owls! Nothing but songs of death?
[He strikes him.]
There, take thou that till thou bring better news.
THIRD MESSENGER
The news I have to tell your majesty
Is, that by sudden floods and fall of waters,
Buckingham’s army is dispers’d and scatter’d;
And he himself wander’d away alone,
No man knows whither.
KING RICHARD
I cry you mercy:
There is my purse to cure that blow of thine.
Hath any well-advisèd friend proclaim’d
Reward to him that brings the traitor in?
THIRD MESSENGER
Such proclamation hath been made, my liege.
[Enter a fourth MESSENGER.]
FOURTH MESSENGER
Sir Thomas Lovel and Lord Marquis Dorset,
‘Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms.
But this good comfort bring I to your highness,—
The Britagne navy is dispers’d by tempest:
Richmond, in Dorsetshire, sent out a boat
Unto the shore, to ask those on the banks
If they were his assistants, yea or no;
Who answer’d him they came from Buckingham
Upon his party. He, mistrusting them,
Hois’d sail, and made his course again for Britagne.
KING RICHARD
March on, march on, since we are up in arms;
If not to fight with foreign enemies,
Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.
[Re-enter CATESBY.]
CATESBY
My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken,—
That is the best news: that the Earl of Richmond
Is with a mighty power landed at Milford
Is colder tidings, yet
