Act II
fba SCENE I. London. The palace
Flourish. Enter
KING EDWARD sick,
QUEEN ELIZABETH, DORSET, RIVERS, HASTINGS, BUCKINGHAM, GREY, and others.
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K. Edw.
Why, so: now have I done a good day’s work:
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You peers, continue this united league:
I every day expect an embassage
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From my Redeemer to redeem me hence;
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And now in peace my soul shall part to heaven,
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Since I have set my friends at peace on earth.
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Rivers and Hastings, take each other’s hand;
Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love.
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Riv.
By heaven, my soul is purged from grudging hate;
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And with my hand I seal my true heart’s love.
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Hast.
So thrive I, as I truly swear the like!
K. Edw.
Take heed you dally not before your king;
Lest he that is the supreme King of kings
Confound your hidden falsehood and award
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Either of you to be the other’s end.
Hast.
So prosper I, as I swear perfect love!
Riv.
And I, as I love Hastings with my heart!
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K. Edw.
Madam, yourself are not exempt in this,
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Nor your son Dorset; Buckingham, nor you;
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You have been factious one against the other.
Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand;
And what you do, do it unfeignedly.
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Q. Eliz.
Here, Hastings; I will never more remember
Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine!
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K. Edw.
Dorset, embrace him; Hastings, love lord marquess.
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Dor.
This interchange of love, I here protest,
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Upon my part shall be unviolable.
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K. Edw.
Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league
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With thy embracements to my wife’s allies,
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And make me happy in your unity.
Buck.
[To the Queen] Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate
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On you or yours but with all duteous love
Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me
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With hate in those where I expect most love!
When I have most need to employ a friend,
And most assured that he is a friend,
Deep, hollow, treacherous and full of guile,
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Be he unto me! this do I beg of God,
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When I am cold in zeal to you or yours. [They embrace.
K. Edw.
A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham,
Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.
There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here,
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To make the perfect period of this peace.
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Buck.
And, in good time, here comes the noble duke.
Enter GLOUCESTER.
Glou.
Good morrow to my sovereign king and queen;
And, princely peers, a happy time of day!
K. Edw.
Happy indeed, as we have spent the day.
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Brother, we have done deeds of charity;
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Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,
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Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers.
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Glou.
A blessed labour, my most sovereign liege:
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Amongst this princely heap, if any here,
By false intelligence, or wrong surmise,
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Hold me a foe;
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If I unwittingly, or in my rage,
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Have aught committed that is hardly borne
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By any in this presence, I desire
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To reconcile me to his friendly peace:
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’Tis death to me to be at enmity;
I hate it, and desire all good men’s love.
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First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,
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Which I will purchase with my duteous service;
Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham,
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If ever any grudge were lodged between us;
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Of you, Lord Rivers, and, Lord Grey, of you,
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That all without desert have frown’d on me;
Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen; indeed, of all.
I do not know that Englishman alive
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With whom my soul is any jot at odds
More than the infant that is born to-night:
I thank my God for my humility.
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Q. Eliz.
A holy day shall this be kept hereafter:
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I would to God all strifes were well compounded.
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My sovereign liege, I do beseech your majesty
To take our brother Clarence to your grace.
Glou.
Why, madam, have I offer’d love for this,
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To be so flouted in this royal presence?
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Who knows not that the noble duke is dead? [They all start.
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You do him injury to scorn his corse.
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Riv.
Who knows not he is dead! who knows he is?
Q. Eliz.
All-seeing heaven, what a world is this!
Buck.
Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest?
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Dor.
Ay, my good lord; and no one in this presence
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But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.
K. Edw.
Is Clarence dead? the order was reversed.
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Glou.
But he, poor soul, by your first order died,
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And that a winged Mercury did bear;
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Some tardy cripple bore the countermand,
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That came too lag to see him buried.
God grant that some, less noble and less loyal,
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Nearer in bloody thoughts, but not in blood,
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Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
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And yet go current from suspicion!
Enter DERBY.
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Der.
A boon, my sovereign, for my service done!
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K. Edw.
I pray thee, peace: my soul is full of sorrow.
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Der.
I will not rise, unless your highness grant.
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K. Edw.
Then speak at once what is it thou demand’st.
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Der.
The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant’s life;
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Who slew to-day a riotous gentleman
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Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk.
K. Edw.
Have I a tongue to doom my brother’s death,
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And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?
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My brother slew no man; his fault was thought,
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And yet his punishment was cruel death.
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Who sued to me for him? who, in my rage,
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Kneel’d at my feet and bade me be advised?
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Who spake of brotherhood? who spake of love?
Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
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The mighty Warwick, and did fight for me?
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Who told me, in the field by Tewksbury,
When Oxford had me down, he rescued me,
And said ‘Dear brother, live, and be a king’?
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Who told me, when we both lay in the field
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Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
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Even in his own garments, and gave himself,
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All thin and naked, to the numb cold night?
All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
Sinfully pluck’d, and not a man of you
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Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
But when your carters or your waiting-vassals
Have done a drunken slaughter and defaced
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The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon;
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And I, unjustly too, must grant it you:
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But for my brother not a man would speak,
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Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself
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For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
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Have been beholding to him in his life;
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Yet none of you would once plead for his life.
O God, I fear thy justice will take hold
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On me, and you, and mine, and yours for this!
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Come, Hastings, help me to my closet. Oh, poor Clarence! [Exeunt some with King and Queen.
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Glou.
This is the fruit of rashness. Mark’d you not
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How that the guilty kindred of the queen
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Look’d pale when they did hear of Clarence’ death?
O, they did urge it still unto the king!
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God will revenge it. But come, let us in,
To comfort Edward with our company.
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