Enter LORD HASTINGS
HASTINGS.Good time of day unto my gracious lord!GLOUCESTER.As much unto my good Lord Chamberlain!Well are you welcome to the open air.How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment?HASTINGS.With patience,noble lord,as prisoners must;But I shall live,my lord,to give them thanks That were the cause of my imprisonment.GLOUCESTER.No doubt,no doubt;and so shall Clarence too;For they that were your enemies are his,And have prevail'd as much on him as you.HASTINGS.More pity that the eagles should be mew'd Whiles kites and buzzards prey at liberty.GLOUCESTER.What news abroad?HASTINGS.No news so bad abroad as this at home:The King is sickly,weak,and melancholy,And his physicians fear him mightily.GLOUCESTER.Now,by Saint John,that news is bad indeed.O,he hath kept an evil diet long And overmuch consum'd his royal person!'Tis very grievous to be thought upon.Where is he?In his bed?HASTINGS.He is.GLOUCESTER.Go you before,and I will follow you.Exit HASTINGS He cannot live,I hope,and must not die Till George be pack'd with posthorse up to heaven.I'll in to urge his hatred more to Clarence With lies well steel'd with weighty arguments;And,if I fail not in my deep intent,Clarence hath not another day to live;Which done,God take King Edward to his mercy,And leave the world for me to bustle in!For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter.What though I kill'd her husband and her father?The readiest way to make the wench amends Is to become her husband and her father;The which will I-not all so much for love As for another secret close intent By marrying her which I must reach unto.But yet I run before my horse to market.Clarence still breathes;Edward still lives and reigns;When they are gone,then must I count my gains.Exit
SCENE 2.London.Another street
Enter corpse of KING HENRY THE SIXTH,with halberds to guard it;LADY ANNE being the mourner,attended by TRESSEL and BERKELEY
ANNE.Set down,set down your honourable load-If honour may be shrouded in a hearse;Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament Th'untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.Poor key-cold figure of a holy king!Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster!Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,Wife to thy Edward,to thy slaughtered son,Stabb'd by the self-same hand that made these wounds.Lo,in these windows that let forth thy life I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.O,cursed be the hand that made these holes!Cursed the heart that had the heart to do it!Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!More direful hap betide that hated wretch That makes us wretched by the death of thee Than I can wish to adders,spiders,toads,Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!If ever he have child,abortive be it,Prodigious,and untimely brought to light,Whose ugly and unnatural aspect May fright the hopeful mother at the view,And that be heir to his unhappiness!If ever he have wife,let her be made More miserable by the death of him Than I am made by my young lord and thee!Come,now towards Chertsey with your holy load,Taken from Paul's to be interred there;And still as you are weary of this weight Rest you,whiles I lament King Henry's corse.[The bearers take up the coffin]
Enter GLOUCESTER
GLOUCESTER.Stay,you that bear the corse,and set it down.ANNE.What black magician conjures up this fiend To stop devoted charitable deeds?GLOUCESTER.Villains,set down the corse;or,by Saint Paul,I'll make a corse of him that disobeys!FIRST GENTLEMAN.My lord,stand back,and let the coffin pass.GLOUCESTER.Unmannerd dog!Stand thou,when I command.Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,Or,by Saint Paul,I'll strike thee to my foot And spurn upon thee,beggar,for thy boldness.[The bearers set down the coffin]ANNE.What,do you tremble?Are you all afraid?