STANLEY Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess.

  KING RICHARD

  Unless for that he comes to be your liege,

  475

  You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes.

  Thou wilt revolt and fly to him, I fear.

  STANLEY No, my good lord; therefore mistrust me not.

  KING RICHARD

  Where is thy power then to beat him back?

  Where be thy tenants and thy followers?

  480

  Are they not now upon the western shore,

  Safe-conducting the rebels from their ships?

  STANLEY

  No, my good lord, my friends are in the north.

  KING RICHARD

  Cold friends to me! What do they in the north,

  When they should serve their sovereign in the west?

  485

  STANLEY

  They have not been commanded, mighty King.

  Pleaseth your Majesty to give me leave,

  I’ll muster up my friends, and meet your Grace

  Where and what time your Majesty shall please.

  KING RICHARD

  Ay, ay, thou wouldst be gone, to join with Richmond.

  490

  But I’ll not trust thee.

  STANLEY Most mighty sovereign,

  You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful.

  I never was, nor never will be, false.

  KING RICHARD

  Go then, and muster men – but leave behind

  Your son George Stanley. Look your heart be firm,

  495

  Or else his head’s assurance is but frail.

  STANLEY So deal with him as I prove true to you.

  Exit.

  Enter a Messenger.

  1 MESSENGER

  My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire –

  As I by friends am well advertised –

  Sir Edward Courtney and the haughty prelate,

  500

  Bishop of Exeter, his elder brother,

  With many more confederates, are in arms.

  Enter another Messenger.

  2 MESSENGER

  In Kent, my liege, the Guilfords are in arms,

  And every hour more competitors

  Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong.

  505

  Enter another Messenger.

  3 MESSENGER

  My lord, the army of great Buckingham –

  KING RICHARD

  Out on you, owls! Nothing but songs of death?

  [He striketh him.]

  There, take thou that, till thou bring better news.

  3 MESSENGER

  The news I have to tell your Majesty

  Is, that by sudden floods and fall of waters,

  510

  Buckingham’s army is dispers’d and scatter’d,

  And he himself wander’d away alone,

  No man knows whither.

  KING RICHARD I cry thee mercy;

  There is my purse, to cure that blow of thine.

  Hath any well-advised friend proclaim’d

  515

  Reward to him that brings the traitor in?

  3 MESSENGER

  Such proclamation hath been made, my lord.

  Enter another Messenger.

  4 MESSENGER

  Sir Thomas Lovel and Lord Marquess Dorset

  ’Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms;

  But this good comfort bring I to your Highness:

  520

  The Breton navy is dispers’d by tempest.

  Richmond, in Dorsetshire, sent out a boat

  Unto the shore, to ask those on the banks

  If they were his assistants, yea or no? –

  Who answer’d him they came from Buckingham

  525

  Upon his party. He, mistrusting them,

  Hois’d sail, and made his course again for Bretagne.

  KING RICHARD

  March on, march on, since we are up in arms:

  If not to fight with foreign enemies,

  Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.

  530

  Enter CATESBY.

  CATESBY My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken:

  That is the best news. That the Earl of Richmond

  Is with a mighty power landed at Milford

  Is colder tidings, yet they must be told.

  KING RICHARD

  Away towards Salisbury! While we reason here

  535

  A royal battle might be won and lost.

  Someone take order Buckingham be brought

  To Salisbury; the rest march on with me.

  Flourish. Exeunt.

  4.5 Enter STANLEY, EARL OF DERBY and SIR CHRISTOPHER URSWICK.

  STANLEY

  Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me:

  That in the sty of the most deadly boar

  My son George Stanley is frank’d up in hold;

  If I revolt, off goes young George’s head;

  The fear of that holds off my present aid.

  5

  So get thee gone: commend me to thy lord;

  Withal say that the Queen hath heartily consented

  He should espouse Elizabeth her daughter.

  But tell me, where is princely Richmond now?

  CHRISTOPHER

  At Pembroke, or at Ha’rfordwest in Wales.

  10

  STANLEY What men of name resort to him?

  CHRISTOPHER Sir Walter Herbert, a renowned soldier;

  Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley,

  Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt,

  And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew,

  15

  And many other of great name and worth;

  And towards London do they bend their power,

  If by the way they be not fought withal.

  STANLEY Well, hie thee to thy lord; I kiss his hand.

  My letter will resolve him of my mind.

  20

  Farewell. Exeunt.

  5.1 Enter Sheriff with halberds, and BUCKINGHAM led to execution.

  BUCKINGHAM

  Will not King Richard let me speak with him?

  SHERIFF No, my good lord; therefore be patient.

  BUCKINGHAM

  Hastings, and Edward’s children, Grey and Rivers,

  Holy King Henry, and thy fair son Edward,

  Vaughan, and all that have miscarried

  5

  By underhand, corrupted foul injustice –

  If that your moody, discontented souls

  Do through the clouds behold this present hour,

  Even for revenge mock my destruction.

  This is All-Souls’ day, fellow, is it not?

  10

  SHERIFF It is.

  BUCKINGHAM

  Why then, All-Souls’ day is my body’s doomsday.

  This is the day which, in King Edward’s time,

  I wish’d might fall on me when I was found

  False to his children and his wife’s allies.

  15

  This is the day wherein I wish’d to fall

  By the false faith of him whom most I trusted.

  This, this All-Souls’ day to my fearful soul

  Is the determin’d respite of my wrongs:

  That high All-seer which I dallied with

  20

  Hath turn’d my feigned prayer on my head,

  And given in earnest what I begg’d in jest.

  Thus doth He force the swords of wicked men

  To turn their own points in their masters’ bosoms.

  Thus Margaret’s curse falls heavy on my neck:

  25

  ‘When he,’ quoth she, ‘shall split thy heart with sorrow,

  Remember Margaret was a prophetess!’

  Come, lead me, officers, to the block of shame;

  Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.

  Exit with officers.

  5.2 Enter RICHMOND, OXFORD, BLUNT, HERBERT and others, with drum and colours.

  RICHMOND

  Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,

  Bruis’d underneath the yoke of tyranny;

  Thus far into the bowels of the land

  Have we march’d on without impediment;

  And here receive we from our father Stanley

  5

  Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.

  The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,

  That spoil’d your summer fields and fruitful vines,

  Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough

  In your embowell’d bosoms – this foul swine

  10

  Is now even in the centre of this isle,

  Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn.

  From Tamworth thither is but one day’s march:

  In God’s name, cheerly on, courageous friends,

  To reap the harvest of perpetual peace

  15

  By this one bloody trial of sharp war.

  OXFORD Every man’s conscience is a thousand men,

  To fight against this guilty homicide.

  HERBERT I doubt not but his friends will turn to us.

  BLUNT

  He hath no friends but what are friends for fear,

  20

  Which in his dearest need will fly from him.

  RICHMOND

  All for our vantage; then in God’s name march.

  True hope is swift, and flies with swallow’s wings:

  Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.

  Exeunt.

  5.3 Enter KING RICHARD in arms, with NORFOLK, RATCLIFFE and the EARL OF SURREY, with others.

  KING RICHARD

  Here pitch our tent, even here in Bosworth field.

  [Richard’s tent is raised, on one side of the stage.]

  My lord of Surrey, why look you so sad?

  SURREY My heart is ten times lighter than my looks.

  KING RICHARD My lord of Norfolk.

  NORFOLK Here, most gracious liege.

  KING RICHARD

  Norfolk, we must have knocks – ha, must we not?

  5

  NORFOLK We must both give and take, my loving lord.

  KING RICHARD

  Up with my tent! Here will I lie tonight –

  But where tomorrow? Well, all’s one for that.

  Who hath descried the number of the traitors?

  NORFOLK Six or seven thousand is their utmost power.

  10

  KING RICHARD Why, our battalia trebles that account!

  Besides, the King’s name is a tower of strength

  Which they upon the adverse faction want.

  Up with the tent! Come, noble gentlemen,

  Let us survey the vantage of the ground.

  15

  Call for some men of sound direction;

  Let’s lack no discipline, make no delay:

  For, lords, tomorrow is a busy day!

  [The tent is now ready.] Exeunt through one door.

  Enter through the other door RICHMOND, SIR WILLIAM BRANDON, OXFORD, and HERBERT, BLUNT, and others, who pitch Richmond’s tent on the other side of the stage.

  RICHMOND The weary sun hath made a golden set,

  And by the bright track of his fiery car

  20

  Gives token of a goodly day tomorrow.

  Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my standard.

  My lord of Oxford, you Sir William Brandon,

  And you Sir Walter Herbert, stay with me;

  The Earl of Pembroke keeps his regiment –

  25

  Good captain Blunt, bear my goodnight to him,

  And by the second hour in the morning

  Desire the Earl to see me in my tent.

  Yet one thing more, good captain, do for me:

  Where is Lord Stanley quarter’d, do you know?

  30

  BLUNT Unless I have mista’en his colours much,

  Which well I am assur’d I have not done,

  His regiment lies half a mile at least

  South from the mighty power of the King.

  RICHMOND If without peril it be possible,

  35

  Sweet Blunt, make some good means to speak with him,

  And give him from me this most needful note.

  BLUNT Upon my life, my lord, I’ll undertake it;

  And so God give you quiet rest tonight.

  RICHMOND Good night, good captain Blunt.

  40

  Exit Blunt.

  Give me some ink and paper in my tent;

  I’ll draw the form and model of our battle;

  Limit each leader to his several charge,