SCENE 1.London.The palace
Flourish.Enter KING EDWARD sick,QUEEN ELIZABETH,DORSET,RIVERS,HASTINGS,BUCKINGHAM,GREY,and others
KING EDWARD.Why,so.Now have I done a good day's work.You peers,continue this united league.I every day expect an embassage From my Redeemer to redeem me hence;And more at peace my soul shall part to heaven,Since I have made my friends at peace on earth.Hastings and Rivers,take each other's hand;Dissemble not your hatred,swear your love.RIVERS.By heaven,my soul is purg'd from grudging hate;And with my hand I seal my true heart's love.HASTINGS.So thrive I,as I truly swear the like!KING EDWARD.Take heed you dally not before your king;Lest He that is the supreme King of kings Confound your hidden falsehood and award Either of you to be the other's end.HASTINGS.So prosper I,as I swear perfect love!RIVERS.And I,as I love Hastings with my heart!KING EDWARD.Madam,yourself is not exempt from this;Nor you,son Dorset;Buckingham,nor you:You have been factious one against the other.Wife,love Lord Hastings,let him kiss your hand;And what you do,do it unfeignedly.QUEEN ELIZABETH.There,Hastings;I will never more remember Our former hatred,so thrive I and mine!KING EDWARD.Dorset,embrace him;Hastings,love Lord Marquis.DORSET.This interchange of love,I here protest,Upon my part shall be inviolable.HASTINGS.And so swear I.[They embrace]KING EDWARD.Now,princely Buckingham,seal thou this league With thy embracements to my wife's allies,And make me happy in your unity.BUCKINGHAM.[To the QUEEN]Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate Upon your Grace,but with all duteous love Doth cherish you and yours,God punish me With hate in those where I expect most love!When I have most need to employ a friend And most assured that he is a friend,Deep,hollow,treacherous,and full of guile,Be he unto me!This do I beg of God When I am cold in love to you or yours.[They embrace]KING EDWARD.A pleasing cordial,princely Buckingham,Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here To make the blessed period of this peace.
BUCKINGHAM.And,in good time,Here comes Sir Richard Ratcliff and the Duke.
Enter GLOUCESTER,and RATCLIFF GLOUCESTER.Good
Morrow to my sovereign king and Queen;And,princely peers,a happy time of day!KING EDWARD.Happy,indeed,as we have spent the day.Gloucester,we have done deeds of charity,Made peace of enmity,fair love of hate,Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers.GLOUCESTER.A blessed labour,my most sovereign lord.Among this princely heap,if any here,By false intelligence or wrong surmise,Hold me a foe-If I unwittingly,or in my rage,Have aught committed that is hardly borne To any in this presence,I desire To reconcile me to his friendly peace:'Tis death to me to be at enmity;I hate it,and desire all good men's love.First,madam,I entreat true peace of you,Which I will purchase with my duteous service;Of you,my noble cousin Buckingham,If ever any grudge were lodg'd between us;Of you,and you,Lord Rivers,and of Dorset,That all without desert have frown'd on me;Of you,Lord Woodville,and,Lord Scales,of you;Dukes,earls,lords,gentlemen-indeed,of all.I do not know that Englishman alive With whom my soul is any jot at odds More than the infant that is born to-night.I thank my God for my humility.QUEEN ELIZABETH.A holy day shall this be kept hereafter.I would to God all strifes were well compounded.My sovereign lord,I do beseech your Highness To take our brother Clarence to your grace.GLOUCESTER.Why,madam,have I off'red love for this,To be so flouted in this royal presence?Who knows not that the gentle Duke is dead?[They all start]You do him injury to scorn his corse.KING EDWARD.Who knows not he is dead!Who knows he is?QUEEN ELIZABETH.All-seeing heaven,what a world is this!BUCKINGHAM.Look I so pale,Lord Dorset,as the rest?DORSET.Ay,my good lord;and no man in the presence But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.KING EDWARD.Is Clarence dead?The order was revers'd.GLOUCESTER.But he,poor man,by your first order died,And that a winged Mercury did bear;Some tardy cripple bare the countermand That came too lag to see him buried.God grant that some,less noble and less loyal,Nearer in bloody thoughts,an not in blood,Deserve not worse than wretched
Clarence did,And yet go current from suspicion!