And almost shoulder'd in 15 the swallowing gulf
Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion.
Which to recure,16 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.
Glos. I cannot tell, if 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 check'd my friends.
Therefore,—to speak, and to avoid the first,
And then, in speaking, not t' incur the last, —

15 In for into, the two being often used indiscriminately.-To shoulder, as the word is here used, is to thrust or heave by force or violence. Steevens quotes a similar expression from Lyson's Environs of London: “Lyke tyraunts and lyke madde men helpynge to shulderynge other of the sayd bannermen ynto the dyche."-In the preceding line, graft for grafted, as before convict for convicted. See page 179, note 14.

16 To recure is to recover. Spenser has the word repeatedly in the same So The Faerie Queene, ii. 12, 19:

sense.

Whose mariners and merchants with much toyle
Labour'd in vaine to have recur'd their prize.

Definitively thus I answer you.

desert

Your love deserves my thanks; but my
Unmeritable 17 shuns your high request.
First, if all obstacles were cut away,
And that my path were even to the crown,
As the ripe révenue and due of birth;
Yet so much is my poverty of spirit,

So mighty and so many my defects,

That I would 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 is no need of me ;
And much I need, to help you, were there need: 18
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 19 that I should wring from him!
Buck. My lord, this argues conscience in your Grace;
But the respects thereof are nice 2o 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 his vow,-

17 Unmeritable for unmeriting. This indiscriminate use of active and passive forms has been repeatedly noted. See vol. iv. page 15, note 15.

18" And I fall far short of the ability to help you, if help were needed." 19 "God defend" is the same as God forbid. Repeatedly used thus by Shakespeare; and a common usage of the time.

20 Respects for considerations; a frequent sense of the word. — Nice here means unimportant, or, perhaps, over-scrupulous.

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 distressèd widow,
Even in the afternoon of her best days,
Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye,
Seduced the pitch and height of his degree
To base declension and loathed bigamy:
By her, in his unlawful bed, he got

This Edward, whom our manners call the Prince.
More bitterly could I expostulate,

Save that, for reverence to some alive,2

I give a sparing limit to my tongue.

21

Then, good my lord, take to your royal self
This proffer'd benefit of dignity;

If not to bless us and the land withal,
Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
From the corruption of abusing time
Unto a lineal true-derivèd course.

May. Do, good my lord; your citizens entreat you.
Buck. Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love.
Cate. O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit!
Glos. Alas, why would you heap those 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.

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

21 Buckingham here hints at the pretended illegitimacy of Edward and Clarence. By "some alive" he means the Duchess of York, the mother of Edward and Richard. See near the close of scene 5, "Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person," &c.

And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,22
Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
And equally 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.
Glos. O, do not swear, my Lord of Buckingham.

[Exit BUCKINGHAM: the Mayor, Aldermen, and
Citizens retiring.

Cate. Call them again, sweet prince, accept their suit: If you deny them, all the land will rue it.

Glos. Will you enforce me to a world of cares? Call them again.

[CATESBY goes to the Mayor, &c., and then exit.

I am not made of stone,

But penetrable to your kind entreats,

Albeit against my conscience and my soul.

Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and CATESBY; the Mayor, &c., coming

forward.

Cousin of Buckingham, and sage, grave men,

Since you will buckle fortune on my back,

To bear her burden, whêr 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 23
From all the impure blots and stains thereof;
For God he knows, and you may partly see,

me

22 Remorse, again, for pity or compassion. See page 154, note 16.
23 Acquittance for acquit, because the verse wanted a trisyllable.

How far I am from the desire of this.

May. God bless your Grace! we see it, and will say it.
Glos. In saying so, you shall but say the truth.
Buck. Then I salute you with this royal title:
Long live King Richard, England's worthy King!
Mayor, &c. Amen.

Buck. To-morrow may it please you to be crown'd?
Glos. Even when you please, since you will have it so.
Buck. To-morrow, then, we will attend your Grace :

And so, most joyfully, we take our leave.

Glos. [To the Bishops.] Come, let us to our holy work again. -

Farewell, good cousin ; — farewell, gentle friends. [Exeunt.

SCENE I.

ACT IV.

London. Before the Tower.

Enter, on one side, Queen ELIZABETH, Duchess of YORK, and DORSET; on the other, ANNE Duchess of GLOSTER,' leading Lady MARGARET PLANTAGENET, CLARENCE's young Daugh

ter.

Duch. Who meets us here? my niece 2 Plantagenet,
Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Gloster?

Now, for my life, she's wandering to the Tower,
On pure heart's love, to greet the tender Princes.
Daughter, well met.

1 We have not seen this lady since the second scene of the first Act, in which she promised to meet Richard at Crosby-place. She was marrried to him about the year 1472.

2 The Duchess is speaking to what we should call her grand-daughter. But the words grand-son, grand-daughter, grand-children, are not used by Shakespeare at all; their places being supplied by nephew and niece; sometimes by cousin.