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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
For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.

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:
And, for more flander to thy difmal seat,

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,
For ftanding by when Richard ftab'd her fon.

Riv. Then curs'd fhe Richard, curs'd the Buckingham,

Then curs'd the Haftings. O remember, God!
To hear her prayer for them, as now for us.
As for my fifter and her princely fons,

Be fatisfy'd, dear God, with our true blood;
Which, as thou know'ft, unjustly must be spilt.
Bat. Make haft, the hour of death is now expired.

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,
N

met,

Is to determine of the coronation.

In God's name fpeak, when is the royal day?

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Buck. Are all things ready for that royal time?
Stanl. They are, and want but nomination.
Ely. To-morrow then I judge a happy day.

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
His gracious pleasure any way therein;
But you, my noble Lord, may name the time,
And in the Duke's behalf I'll give my voice,
Which, I prefume, he'll take in gentle part,

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,
My absence doth neglect no great design,

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Which by my prefence might have been concluded.
Buck. Had not you come upon your cue, my Lord,
William Lord Haftings had pronounced your part;
I mean, your voice for crowning of the King.

Glo. Than my Lord Haftings no man might be bolder.

His Lordship knows me well, and loves me well.
-My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holbourn,
I faw good strawberries in your garden there;

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,
When that he bids good marrow with fuch fpirit.
I think, there's ne'er a man in Christendom
Can Jeffer hide his love, or hate, than he,
For by his face ftrait fhall you know his heart.
Stanl. What of his heart perceive you in his face,
By any likelihood he fhew'd to day?

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,
That do confpire my death with devilish plots
Of damned Witchcraft; and that have prevail'd
Upon my body with their hellish Charms.

Haft. The tender love I bear your Grace, my Lord,
Makes me most forward in this Princely prefence,
To doom th'offenders. Whofoe'er they be,
1 fay, my Lord, they have deferved death.

Gla. Then be your eyes the witness of their evil.
Look, how I am bewitch'd; behold, mine arm
Is, like a blafted Sapling, wither'd up;

And this is Edward's wife, that monftrous witch,
Conforted with that harlot, ftrumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.
Haft. If they have done this deed, my noble Lord-
Glo. If?-thou Protector of this damned ftrumpet,
Talk'ft thou to me of Ifs?-thou art a traitor.
-Off with his head. Now, by St. Paul I swear,
I will not dine until I fee the fame;

Lovel, and Catefly, look, that it be done:
The reft, that love me, rife and follow me.

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[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)
For I, too fond, might have prevented this.
Stanley did dream, the boar did rafe our helms;
But I did fcorn it, and difdain to fly.

Three times to day my foot-cloth horse did stumble,
And started when he look'd upon the Tower;
As loth to bear me to the flaughter-house.
-O, now I need the priest that fpake to me,
-I now repent, I told the Purfuivant,
As too triumphing, how mine enemies
To day at Pomfret bloodily were butcher'd,
And I myself secure in grace and favour.
Oh, Margret, Margret, now thy heavy Curfe
Is lighted on poor Haftings' wretched head.

Catef. Come, come, difpatch. The Duke would be
at dinner,

Make a fhort fhrift; he longs to fee your head.
Haft. O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the Grace of God!
7 Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks,
Lives like a drunken failor on a maft,

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,
Nefcius auræ fallacis.

Haft.

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