SCENE VII. Baynard's Castle. The Life and Death of Richard the Third  Shakespeare homepage  |  Richard III  | Act 3, Scene 7 

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 Enter GLOUCESTER and BUCKINGHAM, at several doors  GLOUCESTER  How now, my lord, what say the citizens? 

 BUCKINGHAM  Now, by the holy mother of our Lord, 

 The citizens are mum and speak not a word. 

 GLOUCESTER  Touch'd you the bastardy of Edward's children? 

 BUCKINGHAM  I did; with his contract with Lady Lucy, 

 And his contract by deputy in France; 

 The insatiate greediness of his desires, 

 And his enforcement of the city wives; 

 His tyranny for trifles; his own bastardy, 

 As being got, your father then in France, 

 His resemblance, being not like the duke; 

 Withal I did infer your lineaments, 

 Being the right idea of your father, 

 Both in your form and nobleness of mind; 

 Laid open all your victories in Scotland, 

 Your dicipline in war, wisdom in peace, 

 Your bounty, virtue, fair humility: 

 Indeed, left nothing fitting for the purpose 

 Untouch'd, or slightly handled, in discourse 

 And when mine oratory grew to an end 

 I bid them that did love their country's good 

 Cry 'God save Richard, England's royal king!' 

 GLOUCESTER  Ah! and did they so? 

 BUCKINGHAM  No, so God help me, they spake not a word; 

 But, like dumb statues or breathing stones, 

 Gazed each on other, and look'd deadly pale. 

 Which when I saw, I reprehended them; 

 And ask'd the mayor what meant this wilful silence: 

 His answer was, the people were not wont 

 To be spoke to but by the recorder. 

 Then he was urged to tell my tale again, 

 'Thus saith the duke, thus hath the duke inferr'd;' 

 But nothing spake in warrant from himself. 

 When he had done, some followers of mine own, 

 At the lower end of the hall, hurl'd up their caps, 

 And some ten voices cried 'God save King Richard!' 

 And thus I took the vantage of those few, 

 'Thanks, gentle citizens and friends,' quoth I; 

 'This general applause and loving shout 

 Argues your wisdoms and your love to Richard:' 

 And even here brake off, and came away. 

 GLOUCESTER  What tongueless blocks were they! would not they speak? 

 BUCKINGHAM  No, by my troth, my lord. 

 GLOUCESTER  Will not the mayor then and his brethren come? 

 BUCKINGHAM  The mayor is here at hand: intend some fear; 

 Be not you spoke with, but by mighty suit: 

 And look you get a prayer-book in your hand, 

 And stand betwixt two churchmen, good my lord; 

 For on that ground I'll build a holy descant: 

 And be not easily won to our request: 

 Play the maid's part, still answer nay, and take it. 

 GLOUCESTER  I go; and if you plead as well for them 

 As I can say nay to thee for myself, 

 No doubt well bring it to a happy issue. 

 BUCKINGHAM  Go, go, up to the leads; the lord mayor knocks. 



 Exit GLOUCESTER 

 Enter the Lord Mayor and Citizens  Welcome my lord; I dance attendance here; 

 I think the duke will not be spoke withal. 



 Enter CATESBY  Here comes his servant: how now, Catesby, 

 What says he? 

 CATESBY  My lord: he doth entreat your grace; 

 To visit him to-morrow or next day: 

 He is within, with two right reverend fathers, 

 Divinely bent to meditation; 

 And no worldly suit would he be moved, 

 To draw him from his holy exercise. 

 BUCKINGHAM  Return, good Catesby, to thy lord again; 

 Tell him, myself, the mayor and citizens, 

 In deep designs and matters of great moment, 

 No less importing than our general good, 

 Are come to have some conference with his grace. 

 CATESBY  I'll tell him what you say, my lord. 



 Exit  BUCKINGHAM  Ah, ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward! 

 He is not lolling on a lewd day-bed, 

 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 prince 

 Take on himself the sovereignty thereof: 

 But, sure, I fear, we shall ne'er win him to it. 

 Lord Mayor  Marry, God forbid his grace should say us nay! 

 BUCKINGHAM  I fear he will. 



 Re-enter CATESBY  How now, Catesby, what says your lord? 

 CATESBY  My lord, 

 He wonders to what end you have assembled 

 Such troops of citizens to speak with him, 

 His grace not being warn'd thereof before: 

 My lord, he fears you mean no good to him. 

 BUCKINGHAM  Sorry I am my noble cousin should 

 Suspect me, that I mean no good to him: 

 By heaven, I come in perfect love to him; 

 And so once more return and tell his grace. 



 Exit CATESBY  When holy and devout religious men 

 Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence, 

 So sweet is zealous contemplation. 



 Enter GLOUCESTER aloft, between two Bishops. CATESBY returns  Lord Mayor  See, where he stands between two clergymen! 

 BUCKINGHAM  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 to know a holy man. 

 Famous Plantagenet, most gracious prince, 

 Lend favourable ears to our request; 

 And pardon us the interruption 

 Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal. 

 GLOUCESTER  My lord, there needs no such apology: 

 I rather do beseech you pardon me, 

 Who, earnest in the service of my God, 

 Neglect the visitation of my friends. 

 But, leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure? 

 BUCKINGHAM  Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above, 

 And all good men of this ungovern'd isle. 

 GLOUCESTER  I do suspect I have done some offence 

 That seems disgracious in the city's eyes, 

 And that you come to reprehend my ignorance. 

 BUCKINGHAM  You have, my lord: would it might please your grace, 

 At our entreaties, to amend that fault! 

 GLOUCESTER  Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land? 

 BUCKINGHAM  Then know, it is your fault that you resign 

 The supreme seat, the throne majestical, 

 The scepter'd office of your ancestors, 

 Your state of fortune and your due of birth, 

 The lineal glory of your royal house, 

 To the corruption of a blemished stock: 

 Whilst, in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts, 

 Which here we waken to our country's good, 

 This noble isle doth want her proper limbs; 

 Her face defaced with scars of infamy, 

 Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants, 

 And almost shoulder'd in the swallowing gulf 

 Of blind forgetfulness and dark oblivion. 

 Which to recure, we heartily solicit 

 Your gracious self 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 successively from blood to blood, 

 Your right of birth, your empery, your own. 

 For this, consorted with the citizens, 

 Your very worshipful and loving friends, 

 And by their vehement instigation, 

 In this just suit come I to move your grace. 

 GLOUCESTER  I know not whether to depart in silence, 

 Or bitterly to speak in your reproof. 

 Best fitteth my degree or your condition 

 If not 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 cheque'd my friends. 

 Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first, 

 And then, in speaking, not to incur the last, 

 Definitively thus I answer you. 

 Your love deserves my thanks; but my desert 

 Unmeritable shuns your high request. 

 First if all obstacles were cut away, 

 And that my path were even to the crown, 

 As my ripe revenue and due by birth 

 Yet so much is my poverty of spirit, 

 So mighty and so many my defects, 

 As I had 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 thank'd, there's no need of me, 

 And much I need to help you, if need were; 

 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 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 should wring from him! 

 BUCKINGHAM  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 contract to Lady Lucy-- 

 Your mother lives a witness to that vow-- 

 And afterward by substitute betroth'd 

 To Bona, sister to the King of France. 

 These both put by a poor petitioner, 

 A care-crazed mother of a many children, 

 A beauty-waning and distressed widow, 

 Even in the afternoon of her best days, 

 Made prize and purchase of his lustful eye, 

 Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts 

 To base declension and loathed bigamy 

 By her, in his unlawful bed, he got 

 This Edward, whom our manners term the prince. 

 More bitterly could I expostulate, 

 Save that, for reverence to some alive, 

 I give a sparing limit to my tongue. 

 Then, good my lord, take to your royal self 

 This proffer'd benefit of dignity; 

 If non to bless us and the land withal, 

 Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry 

 From the corruption of abusing times, 

 Unto a lineal true-derived course. 

 Lord Mayor  Do, good my lord, your citizens entreat you. 

 BUCKINGHAM  Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love. 

 CATESBY  O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit! 

 GLOUCESTER  Alas, why would you heap these cares on me? 

 I am unfit for state and majesty; 

 I do beseech you, take it not amiss; 

 I cannot nor I will not yield to you. 

 BUCKINGHAM  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, 

 And egally indeed to all estates,-- 

 Yet whether you accept 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 of your house: 

 And in this resolution here we leave you.-- 

 Come, citizens: 'zounds! I'll entreat no more. 

 GLOUCESTER  O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham. 



 Exit BUCKINGHAM with the Citizens  CATESBY  Call them again, my lord, and accept their suit. 

 ANOTHER  Do, good my lord, lest all the land do rue it. 

 GLOUCESTER  Would you enforce me to a world of care? 

 Well, call them again. I am not made of stone, 

 But penetrable to your. kind entreats, 

 Albeit against my conscience and my soul. 



 Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and the rest  Cousin of Buckingham, and you sage, 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 scandal or foul-faced reproach 

 Attend the sequel of your imposition, 

 Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me 

 From all the impure blots and stains thereof; 

 For God he knows, and you may partly see, 

 How far I am from the desire thereof. 

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

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

 BUCKINGHAM  Then I salute you with this kingly title: 

 Long live Richard, England's royal king! 

 Lord Mayor  Citizens  Amen. 

 BUCKINGHAM  To-morrow will it please you to be crown'd? 

 GLOUCESTER  Even when you please, since you will have it so. 

 BUCKINGHAM  To-morrow, then, we will attend your grace: 

 And so most joyfully we take our leave. 

 GLOUCESTER  Come, let us to our holy task again. 

 Farewell, good cousin; farewell, gentle friends. 



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