Enter GLOUCESTER aloft,between two BISHOPS.CATESBY returns
MAYOR.See where his Grace stands 'tween 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 ear to our requests,And pardon us the interruption Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal.GLOUCESTER.My lord,there needs no such apology:I do beseech your Grace to pardon me,Who,earnest in the service of my God,Deferr'd 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 eye,And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.BUCKINGHAM.You have,my lord.Would it might please your Grace,On our entreaties,to amend your fault!GLOUCESTER.Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?BUCKINGHAM.Know then,it is your fault that you resign The supreme seat,the throne majestical,The scept'red 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 blemish'd stock;Whiles in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,Which here we waken to our country's good,The noble isle doth want her proper limbs;Her face defac'd with scars of infamy,Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,And almost should'red in the swallowing gulf Of dark forgetfulness and deep 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 cause come I to move your Grace.GLOUCESTER.I cannot tell if to depart in silence Or bitterly to speak in your reproof Best fitteth my degree or your condition.