Her face defac'd with fears of infamy,
Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,
And almost shoulder'd into th" fwallowing gulph
Of dark forgetfulness, and deep oblivion.
Which to re-cure, we heartily follicit
Your gracious felf to take on you the charge
And kingly government of this your land:
Not as Protector, steward, substitute,
Or lowly factor for another's gain ;
But as fucceffively, from blood to blood,
Your right of birth, your Empery, your own.
For this, conforted with the citizens
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement inftigation,
In this juft fuit come I to move your Grace.
Glo. I cannot tell, if to depart in filence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof,
Beft fitteth my degree, or your condition.
For not to answer, you might haply think
Tongue-ty'd ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoak of Sov'reignty,
Which fondly you would here impofe on me.
If to reprove you for this fuit of yours,
So feafon'd with your faithful love to me,
Then on the other fide I check'd my friends.
Therefore to speak, and to avoid the first,
And then in speaking, not incur the last,
Definitively thus I answer you.
Your love deferves my thanks, but my defert
Unmeritable, fhuns your high request.
First, if all obftacles were cut away,
And that my path were even to the crown,
As the ripe revenue and due of birth;
Yet fo much is my poverty of fpirit,
So mighty and fo many my defects,
That I would rather hide me from my greatness,
Being a bark to brook no mighty sea;
Than in my greatnefs covet to be hid,
And in the vapour of my glory fmother'd.
But God be thank'd, there is no need of me,
And much I need to help you, were there need:
The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
Which mellow'd by the ftealing hours of time,
Will well become the feat of majesty,
And make us, doubtlefs, happy by his reign.
On him I lay what you would lay on me,
The right and fortune of his happy stars,
Which God defend that I fhould wring from him!
Buck. My Lord, this argues confcience in your Grace,
But the refpects thereof are nice and trivial,
All circumftances well confidered.
You fay, that Edward is your brother's fon;
So fay we too, but not by Edward's wife:
For firft was he contract to Lady Lucy,
Your mother lives a witness to that yow;
And afterward by fubftitute betroth'd
To Bona, fifter to the King of France.
These both put off, a poor petitioner,
A care-craz'd mother of a many children,
A beauty-waining, and diftreffed widow,
Ev'n in the afternoon of her best days,
Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye,
Seduc'd the pitch and height of all his thoughts
To bafe declenfion and loath'd bigamy.
By her, in his unlawful bed, he got
This Edward, whom our manners call the Prince:
More bitterly could I expoftulate,
Save that for reverence of fome alive,
I give a fparing limit to my tongue.
Then, good my Lord, take to your royal felf
This proffer'd benefit of dignity:
If not to blefs us and the land withal,
Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
From the corruption of abufing time,
Unto a lineal, true-derived course.
Mayor. Do, good my Lord, your citizens intreat you.
Buck. Refufe not, mighty Lord, this proffer'd love.
Catef. O make them joyful, grant their lawful fuit.
Glo. Alas, why would you heap these cares on me?
I am unfit for ftate and majefty.
I do befeech you, take it not amiss,
I cannot, nor I will not yield to you.
Buck. If you refuse it, as, in love and zeal,
Loth to depofe the child your brother's fon;
(As well we know your tenderness of heart,
And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
And equally indeed to all eftates)
Yet know, whe'r you accept our suit or no,
Your brother's fon fhall never reign our King,.
But we will plant some other in the throne,
To the difgrace and down-fall of your house:
And in this refolution here we leave you.
Come, citizens, we will intreat no more.
[Exeunt. Catef. Call them again, fweet Prince, accept their fuit:
If you deny them, all the land will rue it.
Glo. Will you inforce me to a world of cares?
Call them again; I am not made of stone,
But penetrable to your kind entreaties,
Albeit against my confcience and my foul.
Re-enter Buckingham and the reft.
Coufin of Buckingham, and fage, grave men,
Since you will buckle fortune on my back
To bear her burthen, whether I will or no,
I must have patience to endure the load.
But if black fcandal, or foul-fac'd reproach
Attend the fequel of your impofition,
Your meer enforcement fhall acquittance me
From all the impure blots and ftains thereof.
For God doth know, and you may partly fee,
How far I am from the defire of this.
Mayor. God blefs your Grace! we fee it, and will fay it.
Glo. In faying fo, you fhall but fay the truth. Buck. Then I falute you with this royal title, Long live King Richard, England's worthy King!
Buck. To-morrow may it please you to be crown'd? Glo. Ev'n when you pleafe, for you will have it fo. Buck. To-morrow then we will attend your Grace, And fo moft joyfully we take our leave.
Glo. Come, let us to our holy work again.
Farewel, my coufin; farewel, gentle friends! [Exeunt.
Enter the Queen, Anne Dutchefs of Gloucester with the Daughter of Clarence in her hand, the Dutchess of York, and Marquifs of Dorfet.
WHO meets us here? my niece Plantagenet,
Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Glofter?
Now, for my life, fhe's wand'ring to the Tower,
On pure heart's love, to greet the tender Prince.
Daughter, well met.
Anne. God give your Graces both
A happy and a joyful time of day!
Queen. Sifter, well met; whither away so fast?
Anne. No farther than the Tower, and as I guess,
Upon the like devotion as your felves,
To gratulate the gentle Princes there.
Queen. Kind fifter, thanks; we'll enter all together.
And in good time here the Lieutenant comes.
Master Lieutenant, pray you by your leave,
How doth the Prince, and my young fon of York?
Lieu. Right well, dear Madam; by your patience,
I may not suffer you to visit them;
The King hath ftrictly charg'd the contrary.
Queen. The King? who's that?
Lieu. I mean the Lord Protector.
Queen. The lord protect him from that kingly title!
Hath he fet bounds between their love and me?
I am their mother, who fhall bar me from them?
Dutch. I am their father's mother, I will fee them.
Anne. Their aunt I am in law, in love their mother:
Then bring me to their fights, I'll bear thy blame,
And take thy office from thee on my peril.
Lieu. No, Madam, no, I may not leave it fo:
I'm bound by oath, and therefore pardon me.
Stan. Let me but meet you Ladies one hour hence,
And I'll falute your Grace of York as mother
And reverend looker on of two fair Queens.
Come, Madam, you must strait to Westminster,
There to be crowned Richard's royal Queen.
Queen. Ah, cut my lace afunder,
That my pent heart may have fome fcope to beat,
Or elfe I fwoon with this dead-killing news!
Anne. Defpightful tidings, O unpleafing news!
Dor. Be of good chear: mother, how fares your Grace!
Queen. O Dorfet, fpeak not to me, get thee hence,
Death and destruction dog thee at thy heels,
Thy mother's name is ominous to children.
If thou wilt out-ftrip death, go cross the feas,
And live with Richmond, from the reach of hell.
Go hye thee, hye thee from this flaughter-house,
Left thou increase the number of the dead,
And make me die the thrall of Margret's curfe,
Nor mother, wife, nor England's counted Queen.
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