The trumpets sound. Enter the young PRINCE EDWARD, GLOUCESTER, BUCKINGHAM, CARDINAL, CATESBY, and others BUCKINGHAM Welcome, sweet prince, to London, to your chamber. GLOUCESTER Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts' sovereign The weary way hath made you melancholy. PRINCE EDWARD No, uncle; but our crosses on the way Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy I want more uncles here to welcome me. GLOUCESTER Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years Hath not yet dived into the world's deceit Nor more can you distinguish of a man Than of his outward show; which, God he knows, Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
Those uncles which you want were dangerous;
Your grace attended to their sugar'd words, But look'd not on the poison of their hearts :
God keep you from them, and from such false friends! PRINCE EDWARD God keep me from false friends! but they were none. GLOUCESTER My lord, the mayor of London comes to greet you.
Enter the Lord Mayor and his train Lord Mayor God bless your grace with health and happy days! PRINCE EDWARD I thank you, good my lord; and thank you all.
I thought my mother, and my brother York, Would long ere this have met us on the way Fie, what a slug is Hastings, that he comes not To tell us whether they will come or no!
Enter HASTINGS BUCKINGHAM And, in good time, here comes the sweating lord. PRINCE EDWARD Welcome, my lord: what, will our mother come? HASTINGS On what occasion, God he knows, not I, The queen your mother, and your brother York, Have taken sanctuary: the tender prince Would fain have come with me to meet your grace, But by his mother was perforce withheld. BUCKINGHAM Fie, what an indirect and peevish course Is this of hers! Lord cardinal, will your grace Persuade the queen to send the Duke of York Unto his princely brother presently?
If she deny, Lord Hastings, go with him, And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce. CARDINAL My Lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory Can from his mother win the Duke of York, Anon expect him here; but if she be obdurate To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid We should infringe the holy privilege Of blessed sanctuary! not for all this land Would I be guilty of so deep a sin. BUCKINGHAM You are too senseless--obstinate, my lord, Too ceremonious and traditional Weigh it but with the grossness of this age, You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
The benefit thereof is always granted To those whose dealings have deserved the place, And those who have the wit to claim the place:
This prince hath neither claim'd it nor deserved it;
And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it:
Then, taking him from thence that is not there, You break no privilege nor charter there.
Oft have I heard of sanctuary men;
But sanctuary children ne'er till now. CARDINAL My lord, you shall o'er-rule my mind for once.
Come on, Lord Hastings, will you go with me? HASTINGS I go, my lord. PRINCE EDWARD Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.
Exeunt CARDINAL and HASTINGS
Say, uncle Gloucester, if our brother come, Where shall we sojourn till our coronation? GLOUCESTER Where it seems best unto your royal self.
If I may counsel you, some day or two Your highness shall repose you at the Tower:
Then where you please, and shall be thought most fit For your best health and recreation. PRINCE EDWARD I do not like the Tower, of any place.
Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord? BUCKINGHAM He did, my gracious lord, begin that place;
Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified. PRINCE EDWARD Is it upon record, or else reported Successively from age to age, he built it? BUCKINGHAM Upon record, my gracious lord. PRINCE EDWARD But say, my lord, it were not register'd, Methinks the truth should live from age to age, As 'twere retail'd to all posterity, Even to the general all-ending day. GLOUCESTER [Aside] So wise so young, they say, do never live long. PRINCE EDWARD What say you, uncle? GLOUCESTER I say, without characters, fame lives long.
Aside Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity, I moralize two meanings in one word. PRINCE EDWARD That Julius Caesar was a famous man;
With what his valour did enrich his wit, His wit set down to make his valour live Death makes no conquest of this conqueror;
For now he lives in fame, though not in life.
I'll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham,-- BUCKINGHAM What, my gracious lord? PRINCE EDWARD An if I live until I be a man, I'll win our ancient right in France again, Or die a soldier, as I lived a king. GLOUCESTER [Aside] Short summers lightly have a forward spring.