Glou.
How now, my lord ^note, what say ^note the citizens?

Buck.
Now, by the holy mother of our Lord,
The citizens are mum, and speak ^note not a word.

Glou.
Touch'd you the bastardy of Edward's children?

Buck.
I did; with his contract with Lady Lucy,
And his contract by deputy in France ^note;
The ^note insatiate ^note greediness of his desires ^note,
And his enforcement of the city wives ^note;
His tyranny for trifles; his own bastardy,
As being got, your father then in France,
And his resemblance ^note, being not like the duke ^note:
Withal I did infer your lineaments,
Being the right idea of your father,
Both in your ^note form and nobleness of mind;
Laid open ^note all your victories ^note in Scotland,
Your discipline in war, wisdom in peace,
Your bounty, virtue, fair humility;

Indeed left nothing fitting for the purpose ^note
Untouch'd or slightly handled in discourse:
And when mine ^note oratory grew ^note to an end ^note,
I bid ^note them that did love ^note their country's good
Cry ‘God save Richard, England's royal king!’

Glou.
Ah! and ^note did they so?

Buck.
No, so God help me, they spake not a word ^note;
But, like dumb statuas ^note or breathing ^note stones,
Gazed ^note each on other, and look'd deadly pale.
Which when I saw, I reprehended them;
And ask'd the mayor what meant ^note this wilful silence:
His answer was, the pople were not wont ^note
To be spoke to ^note but ^note by the ^note recorder.
Then he was urged to tell my tale again:
‘Thus saith the duke, thus hath the duke inferr'd;’
But nothing spake ^note in warrant from himself.
When he had done, some followers of mine own
At the lower end of the ^note hall hurl'd up their caps,
And some ten voices cried ‘God save King Richard!’
And thus I took the vantage of those few ^note,
‘Thanks, gentle ^note citizens and friends!’ quoth I,
‘This general applause and loving ^note shout
Argues your wisdoms ^note and your love ^note to Richard:’

And even here ^note brake off, and came away.

Glou.
What tongueless blocks were they! would they ^note not speak? ^note

Buck.
No, by my troth, my lord ^note.

Glou.
Will not the mayor then and his brethren come?

Buck.
The mayor is here at hand ^note: intend ^note some ^note fear;
Be not you spoke with, but by mighty suit ^note:
And look you get a prayer-book in your hand,
And stand betwixt ^note two churchmen, good my lord;
For on that ground I'll build ^note a holy descant:
And be not easily ^note won to our request ^note;
Play the maid's part, still answer nay, and take it ^note.

Glou.
I go; and if you plead ^note as well for them
As I can say nay to thee ^note for myself, ^note
No doubt we'll ^note bring it to a happy issue.

Buck.
Go, go up to the leads; the lord mayor knocks ^note. [Exit Gloucester. ^note Enter ^note the Mayor and Citizens.
Welcome, my lord ^note: I dance ^note attendance here;
I think the duke will not be spoke ^note withal. Enter Catesby.
Here comes his servant: how now, Catesby,
What says he? ^note

Cate.
My lord, he doth entreat your grace ^note
To visit him to-morrow or next day:
He is within, with two right ^note reverend fathers,
Divinely bent to meditation;
And in no worldly suit ^note would he be moved,
To draw him from his holy exercise.

Buck.
Return, good Catesby, to thy lord again ^note;
Tell him, myself, the mayor and citizens ^note,
In deep designs and matters ^note of great moment,
No less importing than ^note our general good,
Are come to have some conference with his grace.

Cate.
I'll tell ^note him what you say, my lord ^note. [Exit.

Buck.
Ah, ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward!
He is not lolling ^note on a lewd day-bed ^note,
But on his knees at meditation;
Not dallying with a brace of courtezans,
But meditating with two deep divines;
Not sleeping, to engross his idle body,
But praying, to enrich his watchful soul:
Happy were England, would this gracious ^note prince
Take on himself ^note the sovereignty thereof ^note:
But, sure ^note, I fear, we shall ne'er ^note win him to it.

May.
Marry, God forbid ^note his grace should say us nay!

Buck.
I fear he will ^note.

Re-enter ^note Catesby.
How now, Catesby, what says your lord? ^note

Cate.
My lord ^note,
He wonders to what end you have assembled
Such troops of citizens to speak with ^note him,
His grace not being warn'd thereof before: ^note
My lord, he fears ^note you mean no good to him.

Buck.
Sorry I am my noble cousin should
Suspect me, that I mean no good to him:
By heaven, I come in perfect ^note love to him ^note;
And so once more return and tell his grace. [Exit Catesby. ^note
When holy and devout religious men
Are at their ^note beads, 'tis hard ^note to draw them thence ^note,
So sweet is zealous contemplation. ^noteEnter Gloucester aloft, between two Bishops ^note. Catesby returns ^note.

May.
See, where he stands between ^note two clergymen!

Buck.
Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
To stay him from the fall of vanity:
And, see, a book of prayer in his hand,
True ornaments ^note to know a holy man ^note.
Famous Plantagenet, most gracious prince,
Lend favourable ears ^note to our ^note request ^note;
And pardon us the interruption

Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal.

Glou.
My lord, there needs no such apology:
I rather do beseech you pardon ^note me,
Who, earnest in the service of my God ^note,
Neglect ^note the visitation of my friends.
But, leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure?

Buck.
Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above
And all good men of this ungovern'd isle.

Glou.
I do suspect I have done some offence
That seems ^note disgracious in the city's eyes ^note,
And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.

Buck.
You have, my lord: would it might ^note please your grace ^note,
At ^note our entreaties, to amend that ^note fault!

Glou.
Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?

Buck.
Then know ^note, it is your fault that you resign
The supreme seat, the throne majestical,
The scepter'd ^note office of your ancestors,
Your state of fortune and your due ^note of birth ^note,
The lineal glory of your royal house,
To the corruption of a blemish'd stock:
Whilst ^note, in the mildness of your ^note sleepy thoughts,
Which here we waken to our ^note country's good,
This ^note noble isle doth want her ^note proper limbs;
Her ^note face defaced with scars ^note of infamy,
Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants ^note,

And almost shoulder'd ^note in the ^{note note} swallowing gulf
Of blind forgetfulness and dark ^note oblivion.
Which to recure ^note, we heartily solicit
Your gracious self to take on you ^note the charge
And kingly government of this your land ^note;
Not as protector, steward, substitute,
Or ^note lowly factor for another's gain;
But as successively, from blood to blood,
Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
For this, consorted with the citizens,
Your very worshipful and loving ^note friends,
And by their vehement instigation,
In this just suit ^note come I to move your grace.

Glou.
I know not whether ^note to depart in silence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof,
Best fitteth ^note my degree or your condition:
If not ^note to answer, you might haply think
Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
Which fondly you would here impose on me;
If to reprove you for this suit of yours,
So season'd with your faithful love to me,
Then, on the other side, I check'd my friends.
Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first,
And then, in speaking, not to ^note incur the last,
Definitively thus I answer you. ^note
Your love deserves my thanks, but my desert

Unmeritable shuns ^note your high request.
First, if all obstacles were cut away
And that my path were even to the crown,
As my ripe ^note revenue and due by birth ^note;
Yet so much is my poverty of spirit,
So mighty and so many my defects,
As I had ^note rather hide me from my greatness,
Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,
Than in my greatness covet to be hid
And in the vapour of my glory smother'd.
But, God be thanked, there's ^note no need of me ^note,
And much I need to help you, if need were ^note;
The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time,
Will well become the seat of majesty,
And make, no doubt, us ^note happy by his reign.
On him I lay what ^note you would lay ^note on me,
The right and fortune of his happy stars;
Which God defend that I should wring from him!

Buck.
My lord, this argues conscience in your grace;
But the respects thereof are nice and trivial,
All circumstances well considered.
You say that Edward is your brother's son:
So say we too, but not by Edward's wife;
For first he was ^note contract ^note to Lady Lucy—
Your mother lives a witness to that ^note vow—
And afterward ^note by substitute betroth'd ^note
To Bona, sister to the King of France.
These both put by ^note, a poor petitioner,

A care-crazed mother of a many children ^note,
A beauty-waning and distressed widow,
Even in the afternoon of her best days,
Made prize ^note and purchase of his lustful ^note eye,
Seduced ^note the pitch and height of all his thoughts ^note
To base declension and loathed ^note bigamy:
By her, in his ^note unlawful bed, he got
This Edward, whom our manners term ^note the prince.
More bitterly could I ^note expostulate,
Save that, for reverence to some ^note alive,
I give a sparing limit to my tongue.
Then, good my lord, take to your ^note royal self
This proffer'd ^note benefit of dignity;
If not to bless us and the land withal,
Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry ^note
From the corruption of abusing times ^note,
Unto a lineal true-derived ^note course.

May.
Do, good my lord, your citizens entreat you.

Buck.
Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love ^note.

Cate.
O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit!

Glou.
Alas, why would ^note you heap these cares ^note on me?
I am unfit for state and majesty ^note:
I do beseech you, take it not amiss;
I cannot nor I will not yield to you.

Buck.
If you refuse it,—as, in love and zeal,
Loath to depose the child, your brother's son;
As well we know your tenderness of heart

And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
Which we have noted in you to your kin ^note,
And egally ^note indeed to all estates,—
Yet whether ^note you accept ^note our suit or no,
Your brother's son shall never reign our king;
But we will plant some other in the throne,
To the disgrace and downfall ^note of your house:
And in this resolution here we ^note leave you.
Come, citizens: 'zounds! I'll ^note entreat no more.

Glou.
O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham. ^note [Exit Buckingham with the Citizens. ^note

Cate.
Call them again, my lord, and accept ^note their suit:

Another ^note.
Do, good my lord, lest all the land do rue it ^{note note}.

Glou.
Would you enforce me to a world of care? ^{note note}
Well ^note, call them ^note again. I am not made of stone ^note,
But penetrable to your kind entreats ^note,
Albeit against my conscience and my soul. Re-enter ^note Buckingham and the rest.
Cousin of Buckingham, and you ^note sage, grave men,
Since you ^note will buckle fortune on my back,
To bear her ^note burthen, whether ^note I will or no,

I must have patience to endure the load:
But if black scandal or foul-faced ^note reproach
Attend the sequel of your imposition,
Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
From all the impure blots ^note and stains thereof;
For God he knows ^note, and you may partly see,
How far I am from the desire thereof ^note.

May.
God bless your grace! we see it, and will say it.

Glou.
In saying so, you shall but say the truth.

Buck.
Then I salute you with this ^note kingly ^note title:
Long live Richard ^note, England's royal ^note king!

May. and Cit. ^note
Amen.

Buck.
To-morrow will ^note it please you to be crown'd?

Glou.
Even when you please, since ^note you will have it so.

Buck.
To-morrow then we will attend your grace:
And so most joyfully we take our leave ^note. ^note

Glou.
Come, let us to our holy task ^note again.
Farewell, good cousin ^note; farewell, gentle friends. [Exeunt. ^note

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