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Richard III: Act III, Scene 1

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Richard III
Act III, Scene 1

Scene 1

London. A street.

  1. The trumpets sound. Enter young Prince
  2. Edward, the Dukes of Gloucester and
  3. Buckingham, Lord Cardinal Bourchier, Catesby,
  4. with others.

Duke of Buckingham

1
  1. Welcome, sweet Prince, to London, to your chamber.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

2 - 3
  1. Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts’ sovereign,
  2. The weary way hath made you melancholy.

Prince

4 - 6
  1. No, uncle, but our crosses on the way
  2. Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy.
  3. I want more uncles here to welcome me.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

7 - 15
  1. Sweet Prince, the untainted virtue of your years
  2. Hath not yet div’d into the world’s deceit;
  3. Nor more can you distinguish of a man
  4. Than of his outward show, which, God he knows,
  5. Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
  6. Those uncles which you want were dangerous;
  7. Your Grace attended to their sug’red words,
  8. But look’d not on the poison of their hearts.
  9. God keep you from them, and from such false friends!

Prince

16
  1. God keep me from false friends!—but they were none.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

17
  1. My lord, the Mayor of London comes to greet you.
  1. Enter Lord Mayor and his Train.

Mayor

18
  1. God bless your Grace with health and happy days!

Prince

19 - 23
  1. I thank you, good my lord, and thank you all.
  2. Mayor and Train stand aside.
  3. I thought my mother and my brother York
  4. Would long ere this have met us on the way.
  5. Fie, what a slug is Hastings, that he comes not
  6. To tell us whether they will come or no!
  1. Enter Lord Hastings.

Duke of Buckingham

24
  1. And in good time, here comes the sweating lord.

Prince

25
  1. Welcome, my lord. What, will our mother come?

Hastings

26 - 30
  1. On what occasion, God he knows, not I,
  2. The Queen your mother and your brother York
  3. Have taken sanctuary. The tender Prince
  4. Would fain have come with me to meet your Grace,
  5. But by his mother was perforce withheld.

Duke of Buckingham

31 - 36
  1. Fie, what an indirect and peevish course
  2. Is this of hers! Lord Cardinal, will your Grace
  3. Persuade the Queen to send the Duke of York
  4. Unto his princely brother presently?
  5. If she deny, Lord Hastings, go with him,
  6. And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.

Cardinal

37 - 43
  1. My Lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory
  2. Can from his mother win the Duke of York,
  3. Anon expect him here; but if she be obdurate
  4. To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid
  5. We should infringe the holy privilege
  6. Of blessed sanctuary! Not for all this land
  7. Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.

Duke of Buckingham

44 - 56
  1. You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord,
  2. Too ceremonious and traditional.
  3. Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,
  4. You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
  5. The benefit thereof is always granted
  6. To those whose dealings have deserv’d the place
  7. And those who have the wit to claim the place.
  8. This prince hath neither claim’d it nor deserv’d it,
  9. And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it.
  10. Then taking him from thence that is not there,
  11. You break no privilege nor charter there.
  12. Oft have I heard of sanctuary men,
  13. But sanctuary children never till now.

Cardinal

57 - 58
  1. My lord, you shall overrule my mind for once.
  2. Come on, Lord Hastings, will you go with me?

Hastings

59
  1. I go, my lord.

Prince

60 - 62
  1. Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.
  2. Exeunt Cardinal and Lord Hastings.
  3. Say, uncle Gloucester, if our brother come,
  4. Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

63 - 67
  1. Where it seems best unto your royal self.
  2. If I may counsel you, some day or two
  3. Your Highness shall repose you at the Tower;
  4. Then where you please, and shall be thought most fit
  5. For your best health and recreation.

Prince

68 - 69
  1. I do not like the Tower, of any place.
  2. Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?
    Nov 3, 2020 Miko
    Londoners claimed that the Tower of London was built by Julius Caesar. It's unclear to what extent they actually believed it.

Duke of Buckingham

70 - 71
  1. He did, my gracious lord, begin that place,
  2. Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.

Prince

72 - 73
  1. Is it upon record, or else reported
  2. Successively from age to age, he built it?
The Princes in the Tower

The Princes in the Tower

John Everett Millais, 1878

Duke of Buckingham

74
  1. Upon record, my gracious lord.

Prince

75 - 78
  1. But say, my lord, it were not regist’red,
  2. Methinks the truth should live from age to age,
  3. As ’twere retail’d to all posterity,
  4. Even to the general all-ending day.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

79
  1. Aside.
  2. So wise so young, they say do never live long.

Prince

80
  1. What say you, uncle?

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

81 - 83
  1. I say, without characters fame lives long.
  2. Aside.
  3. Thus, like the formal Vice, Iniquity,
  4. I moralize two meanings in one word.

Prince

84 - 89
  1. That Julius Caesar was a famous man;
  2. With what his valor did enrich his wit,
  3. His wit set down to make his valor live.
  4. Death makes no conquest of this conqueror,
  5. For now he lives in fame though not in life.
  6. I’ll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham—

Duke of Buckingham

90
  1. What, my gracious lord?

Prince

91 - 93
  1. And if I live until I be a man,
  2. I’ll win our ancient right in France again,
  3. Or die a soldier as I liv’d a king.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

94
  1. Aside.
  2. Short summers lightly have a forward spring.
  1. Enter young York, Hastings, Cardinal Bourchier.

Duke of Buckingham

95
  1. Now in good time, here comes the Duke of York.

Prince

96
  1. Richard of York, how fares our loving brother?

York

97
  1. Well, my dread lord—so must I call you now.

Prince

98 - 100
  1. Ay, brother, to our grief, as it is yours.
  2. Too late he died that might have kept that title,
  3. Which by his death hath lost much majesty.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

101
  1. How fares our cousin, noble Lord of York?

York

102 - 104
  1. I thank you, gentle uncle. O my lord,
  2. You said that idle weeds are fast in growth:
  3. The Prince my brother hath outgrown me far.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

105
  1. He hath, my lord.

York

106
  1. And therefore is he idle?

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

107
  1. O my fair cousin, I must not say so.

York

108
  1. Then he is more beholding to you than I.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

109 - 110
  1. He may command me as my sovereign,
  2. But you have power in me as in a kinsman.

York

111
  1. I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

112
  1. My dagger, little cousin? With all my heart.

Prince

113
  1. A beggar, brother?

York

114 - 115
  1. Of my kind uncle, that I know will give,
  2. And being but a toy, which is no grief to give.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

116
  1. A greater gift than that I’ll give my cousin.

York

117
  1. A greater gift? O, that’s the sword to it.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

118
  1. Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough.

York

119 - 120
  1. O then I see you will part but with light gifts!
  2. In weightier things you’ll say a beggar nay.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

121
  1. It is too heavy for your Grace to wear.

York

122
  1. I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

123
  1. What, would you have my weapon, little lord?

York

124
  1. I would, that I might thank you as you call me.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

125
  1. How?

York

126
  1. Little.

Prince

127 - 128
  1. My Lord of York will still be cross in talk.
  2. Uncle, your Grace knows how to bear with him.

York

129 - 132
  1. You mean, to bear me, not to bear with me.
  2. Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me:
  3. Because that I am little, like an ape,
  4. He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulders.

Duke of Buckingham

133 - 136
  1. Aside to Hastings
  2. With what a sharp-provided wit he reasons!
  3. To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle,
  4. He prettily and aptly taunts himself:
  5. So cunning and so young is wonderful.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

137 - 140
  1. My lord, will’t please you pass along?
  2. Myself and my good cousin Buckingham
  3. Will to your mother, to entreat of her
  4. To meet you at the Tower and welcome you.

York

141
  1. What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord?

Prince

142
  1. My Lord Protector needs will have it so.

York

143
  1. I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

144
  1. Why, what should you fear?

York

145 - 146
  1. Marry, my uncle Clarence’ angry ghost.
  2. My grandam told me he was murd’red there.
Performance of King Richard III at Crosby Hall

Performance of King Richard III at Crosby Hall

Herbert Railton, circa 1889

Prince

147
  1. I fear no uncles dead.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

148
  1. Nor none that live, I hope.

Prince

149 - 151
  1. And if they live, I hope I need not feat.
  2. But come, my lord; with a heavy heart,
  3. Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.
  1. A sennet. Exeunt Prince Edward, York,
  2. Hastings, Cardinal Bourchier, and others.
  3. Manent Richard, Buckingham, and Catesby.

Duke of Buckingham

152 - 154
  1. Think you, my lord, this little prating York
  2. Was not incensed by his subtile mother
  3. To taunt and scorn you thus opprobriously?

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

155 - 157
  1. No doubt, no doubt. O, ’tis a perilous boy,
  2. Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable:
  3. He is all the mother’s, from the top to toe.

Duke of Buckingham

158 - 165
  1. Well, let them rest. Come hither, Catesby.
  2. Thou art sworn as deeply to effect what we intend
  3. As closely to conceal what we impart.
  4. Thou know’st our reasons urg’d upon the way;
  5. What think’st thou? Is it not an easy matter
  6. To make William Lord Hastings of our mind
  7. For the installment of this noble Duke
  8. In the seat royal of this famous isle?

Catesby

166 - 167
  1. He for his father’s sake so loves the Prince
  2. That he will not be won to aught against him.

Duke of Buckingham

168
  1. What think’st thou then of Stanley? Will not he?

Catesby

169
  1. He will do all in all as Hastings doth.

Duke of Buckingham

170 - 181
  1. Well then, no more but this: go, gentle Catesby,
  2. And as it were far off, sound thou Lord Hastings
  3. How he doth stand affected to our purpose,
  4. And summon him tomorrow to the Tower
  5. To sit about the coronation.
  6. If thou dost find him tractable to us,
  7. Encourage him, and tell him all our reasons;
  8. If he be leaden, icy, cold, unwilling,
  9. Be thou so too, and so break off the talk,
  10. And give us notice of his inclination;
  11. For we tomorrow hold divided Councils,
  12. Wherein thyself shalt highly be employ’d.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

182 - 186
  1. Commend me to Lord William. Tell him, Catesby,
  2. His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries
  3. Tomorrow are let blood at Pomfret Castle,
  4. And bid my lord, for joy of this good news,
  5. Give Mistress Shore one gentle kiss the more.

Duke of Buckingham

187
  1. Good Catesby, go effect this business soundly.

Catesby

188
  1. My good lords both, with all the heed I can.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

189
  1. Shall we hear from you, Catesby, ere we sleep?

Catesby

190
  1. You shall, my lord.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

191
  1. At Crosby House, there shall you find us both.
  1. Exit Catesby.

Duke of Buckingham

192 - 193
  1. Now, my lord, what shall we do if we perceive
  2. Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots?

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

194 - 197
  1. Chop off his head! Something we will determine.
  2. And look when I am king, claim thou of me
  3. The earldom of Herford, and all the moveables
  4. Whereof the King my brother was possess’d.

Duke of Buckingham

198
  1. I’ll claim that promise at your Grace’s hand.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

199 - 201
  1. And look to have it yielded with all kindness.
  2. Come, let us sup betimes, that afterwards
  3. We may digest our complots in some form.
  1. Exeunt.
Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

I do not like the Tower, of any place.

From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Mary Cowden Clarke, Charles Cowden Clarke, 1870

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