Enter Sir Richard Ratcliff, with balberds, carrying Lord Rivers, Lord Richard Gray, and Sir Thomas Vaughan to Death. Rat. COME, bring forth the prifoners. CON this; Riv. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee To day fhalt thou behold a fubject die Gray. God keep the Prince from all the pack of you, A knot you are of damned blood-fuckers. Vaugh. You live, that fhall cry woe for this hereafter. Rat. Difpatch; the limit of your lives is out. Riv. O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison, Fatal and ominous to noble Peers! Within the guilty clofure of thy walls Richard the Second, here, was hack'd to death: We give to thee our guiltless blood to drink. Gray. Now, Margret's curfe is fall'n upon our heads, When the exclaim'd on Haftings, you, and I, Riv. Then curs'd fhe Richard, curs'd the Buckingham, Then curs'd the Haftings. O remember, God! Be fatisfy'd, dear God, with our true blood; U 4 Riv. Riv. Come, Gray; come, Vaughan; let us all em brace. Farewel, until we meet again in heav'n. SCENE V. The Tower. [They embrace. [Exeunt. Buckingham, Stanley, Haftings, Bishop of Ely, Catefby, Lovel, with others, at a table. Haft. OW, noble Peers, the cause why we are Now, met, Is to determine of the coronation. In God's name fpeak, when is the royal day? Buck. Are all things ready for that royal time? Buck. Who knows the Lord Protector's mind herein? Who is most inward with the noble Duke? Ely. Your Grace, we think, fhould fooneft know his mind. Buck. We know each other's faces; for our hearts, He knows no more of mine, than I of yours; Nor I of his, my Lord, than you of mine. -Lord Haftings, you and he are near in love. Haft. I thank his Grace, I know he loves me well; But for his purpose in the coronation, I have not founded him, nor he deliver'd Enter Gloucester, Ely. In happy time here comes the Duke himself. Gle. Glo. My noble Lords and Coufins all, good mor row; I have been long a fleeper; but, I trust, 4 Which by my prefence might have been concluded. Glo. Than my Lord Haftings no man might be bolder. His Lordship knows me well, and loves me well. I do beseech you, fend for fome of them. Ely. Marry, and will, my Lord, with all my heart. [Exit Ely. Glo. Coufin of Buckingham, a word with you. -Catesby hath founded Haftings in our business, And finds the tefty gentleman fo hot, That he will lofe his head, ere give Confent His Master's Son, as worshipfully he terms it, Shall lofe the Royalty of England's Throne. Buck. Withdraw yourself a while, I'll go with [Exe. Glo. and Buck, Stanl. We have not yet fet down this day of Triumph. To-morrow, in my judgment, is too fudden; For I myself am not fo well provided, As elfe I would be, were the day prolong'd. Re-enter Bishop of Ely. Ely. Where is my Lord the Duke of Gloucefter? I have fent for thefe ftrawberries. Had you not come upon your cue.] This expreffion is borrowed from the theatre. The Cue, queue, or tail of a fpeech, confifts of the last words, which you. are the token for an entrance or answer. To come on the cue, therefore, is to come at the proper time, Haft! Haft. His Grace looks chearfully and fmooth this morning; There's fome conceit, or other, likes him well, Haft. Marry, that with no man here he is offended: For were he, he had fhewn it in his looks. Re-enter Gloucester and Buckingham. Glo. I pray you all, tell me what they deserve, Haft. The tender love I bear your Grace, my Lord, Gla. Then be your eyes the witness of their evil. And this is Edward's wife, that monftrous witch, Lovel, and Catefly, look, that it be done: [Exeunt. Manent 5 Likelihood Semblance; ap- 6. In former copies: pearance. Lovel and Ratcliff, look that it be Manent Lovel and Catesby, with the Lord Haftings. Haft: Woe, woe, for England, not a whit for me) Three times to day my foot-cloth horse did stumble, Catef. Come, come, difpatch. The Duke would be Make a fhort fhrift; he longs to fee your head. Ready with every Nod to tumble down Into the fatal bowels of the deep. Lov. Come, come, difpatch; 'tis bootlefs to exclaim, be done,] The Scene is here in the Tower and Lord Haftings was cut off on that very day, when Rivers, Gray and Vaughan fuffered at Pomfret. How then could Ratcliff be both in Yorkfhire and the Tower? In the Scene preceding this, we find him conducting thofe Gentlemen to the Block. In the old Quar to, we find it Exeunt: Maner Catesby with Haftings. And in the next Scene, before the TowerWalls, we find Lovel and Catef by come back from the Execution, bringing the Head of Haftings. THEOBALD 7 So Horace, Haft. |