1    Why, so: now have I done a good day's work:
2    You peers, continue this united league:
3    I every day expect an embassage
4    From my Redeemer to redeem me hence;
5    And now in peace my soul shall part to heaven,
6    Since I have set my friends at peace on earth.
7    Rivers and Hastings, take each other's hand;
8    Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love.

9    By heaven, my heart is purged from grudging hate:
10   And with my hand I seal my true heart's love.

11   So thrive I, as I truly swear the like!

12   Take heed you dally not before your king;
13   Lest he that is the supreme King of kings
14   Confound your hidden falsehood, and award
15   Either of you to be the other's end.

16   So prosper I, as I swear perfect love!

17   And I, as I love Hastings with my heart!

18   Madam, yourself are not exempt in this,
19   Nor your son Dorset, Buckingham, nor you;
20   You have been factious one against the other,
21   Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand;
22   And what you do, do it unfeignedly.

23   Here, Hastings; I will never more remember
24   Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine!

25   Dorset, embrace him; Hastings, love lord marquess.

26   This interchange of love, I here protest,
27   Upon my part shall be unviolable.

28   And so swear I, my lord

29   Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league
30   With thy embracements to my wife's allies,
31   And make me happy in your unity.

32   Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate
33   On you or yours,
To the Queen
34   but with all duteous love
35   Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me
36   With hate in those where I expect most love!
37   When I have most need to employ a friend,
38   And most assured that he is a friend
39   Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile,
40   Be he unto me! this do I beg of God,
41   When I am cold in zeal to yours.

42   A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham,
43   is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.
44   There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here,
45   To make the perfect period of this peace.

46   And, in good time, here comes the noble duke.

47   Good morrow to my sovereign king and queen:
48   And, princely peers, a happy time of day!

49   Happy, indeed, as we have spent the day.
50   Brother, we done deeds of charity;
51   Made peace enmity, fair love of hate,
52   Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers.

53   A blessed labour, my most sovereign liege:
54   Amongst this princely heap, if any here,
55   By false intelligence, or wrong surmise,
56   Hold me a foe;
57   If I unwittingly, or in my rage,
58   Have aught committed that is hardly borne
59   By any in this presence, I desire
60   To reconcile me to his friendly peace:
61   'Tis death to me to be at enmity;
62   I hate it, and desire all good men's love.
63   First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,
64   Which I will purchase with my duteous service;
65   Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham,
66   If ever any grudge were lodged between us;
67   Of you, Lord Rivers, and, Lord Grey, of you;
68   That without desert have frown'd on me;
69   Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen; indeed, of all.
70   I do not know that Englishman alive
71   With whom my soul is any jot at odds
72   More than the infant that is born to-night
73   I thank my God for my humility.

74   A holy day shall this be kept hereafter:
75   I would to God all strifes were well compounded.
76   My sovereign liege, I do beseech your majesty
77   To take our brother Clarence to your grace.

78   Why, madam, have I offer'd love for this
79   To be so bouted in this royal presence?
80   Who knows not that the noble duke is dead?
They all start
81   You do him injury to scorn his corse.

82   Who knows not he is dead! who knows he is?

83   All seeing heaven, what a world is this!

84   Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest?

85   Ay, my good lord; and no one in this presence
86   But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.

87   Is Clarence dead? the order was reversed.

88   But he, poor soul, by your first order died,
89   And that a winged Mercury did bear:
90   Some tardy cripple bore the countermand,
91   That came too lag to see him buried.
92   God grant that some, less noble and less loyal,
93   Nearer in bloody thoughts, but not in blood,
94   Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
95   And yet go current from suspicion!

96   A boon, my sovereign, for my service done!

97   I pray thee, peace: my soul is full of sorrow.

98   I will not rise, unless your highness grant.

99   Then speak at once what is it thou demand'st.

100  The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life;
101  Who slew to-day a righteous gentleman
102  Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk.

103  Have a tongue to doom my brother's death,
104  And shall the same give pardon to a slave?
105  My brother slew no man; his fault was thought,
106  And yet his punishment was cruel death.
107  Who sued to me for him? who, in my rage,
108  Kneel'd at my feet, and bade me be advised
109  Who spake of brotherhood? who spake of love?
110  Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
111  The mighty Warwick, and did fight for me?
112  Who told me, in the field by Tewksbury
113  When Oxford had me down, he rescued me,
114  And said, 'Dear brother, live, and be a king'?
115  Who told me, when we both lay in the field
116  Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
117  Even in his own garments, and gave himself,
118  All thin and naked, to the numb cold night?
119  All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
120  Sinfully pluck'd, and not a man of you
121  Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
122  But when your carters or your waiting-vassals
123  Have done a drunken slaughter, and defaced
124  The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
125  You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon;
126  And I unjustly too, must grant it you
127  But for my brother not a man would speak,
128  Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself
129  For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
130  Have been beholding to him in his life;
131  Yet none of you would once plead for his life.
132  O God, I fear thy justice will take hold
133  On me, and you, and mine, and yours for this!
134  Come, Hastings, help me to my closet.
135  Oh, poor Clarence!

136  This is the fruit of rashness! Mark'd you not
137  How that the guilty kindred of the queen
138  Look'd pale when they did hear of Clarence' death?
139  O, they did urge it still unto the king!
140  God will revenge it. But come, let us in,
141  To comfort Edward with our company.

142  We wait upon your grace.