KING RICHARDAway towards Salisbury! while we reason here
A royal battle might be won and lost:—
Some one take order Buckingham be brought
To Salisbury; the rest march on with me.
[Flourish. Exeunt.]
SCENE V. A Room in Lord Stanley’s house
[Enter STANLEY and SIR CHRISTOPHER URSWICK.]
STANLEY
Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me:—
That in the sty of the most deadly boar
My son George Stanley is frank’d up in hold:
If I revolt, off goes young George’s head;
The fear of that holds off my present aid.
So, get thee gone: commend me to thy lord;
Withal say that the queen hath heartily consented
He should espouse Elizabeth her daughter.
But tell me, where is princely Richmond now?
CHRISTOPHER
At Pembroke, or at Ha’rford-west in Wales.
STANLEY
What men of name resort to him?
CHRISTOPHER
Sir Walter Herbert, a renownèd soldier;
Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley;
Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt,
And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew;
And many other of great name and worth:
And towards London do they bend their power,
If by the way they be not fought withal.
STANLEY
Well, hie thee to thy lord; I kiss his hand;
My letter will resolve him of my mind.
Farewell.
[Gives papers to SIR CHRISTOPHER. Exeunt.]
ACT V
SCENE I. Salisbury. An open place
[Enter the Sheriff and Guard, with BUCKINGHAM, led to execution.]
BUCKINGHAM
Will not King Richard let me speak with him?
SHERIFF
No, my good lord; therefore be patient.
BUCKINGHAM
Hastings, and Edward’s children, Grey, and Rivers,
Holy King Henry, and thy fair son Edward,
Vaughan, and all that have miscarried
By underhand corrupted foul injustice,—
If that your moody discontented souls
Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
Even for revenge mock my destruction!—
This is All-Souls’ day, fellow, is it not?
SHERIFF
It is, my lord.
BUCKINGHAM
Why, then All-Souls’ day is my body’s doomsday.
This is the day which in King Edward’s time
I wish’d might fall on me, when I was found
False to his children and his wife’s allies;
This is the day wherein I wish’d to fall
By the false faith of him whom most I trusted;
This, this All-Souls’ day to my fearful soul
Is the determin’d respite of my wrongs:
That high AllSeer which I dallied with
Hath turn’d my feigned prayer on my head
And given in earnest what I begg’d in jest.
Thus doth He force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points in their masters’ bosoms:
Thus Margaret’s curse falls heavy on my neck,—
“When he,” quoth she, “shall split thy heart with sorrow,
Remember Margaret was a prophetess.”—
Come lead me, officers, to the block of shame;
Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE II. Plain near Tamworth
[Enter with drum and colours, RICHMOND, OXFORD, SIR JAMES BLUNT, SIR WALTER HERBERT, and others, with Forces, marching.]
RICHMOND
Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,
Bruis’d underneath the yoke of tyranny,
Thus far into the bowels of the land
Have we march’d on without impediment;
And here receive we from our father Stanley
Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar
That spoil’d your summer fields and fruitful vines,
Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough
In your embowell’d bosoms,—this foul swine
Lies now even in the centre of this isle,
