Flourish. Enter King Edward, sick, Queen Elizabeth,
Lord Marquess Dorset, Rivers, Hastings, Buckingham,
Woodeville, Grey, and Scales. 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 in peace my soul shall part to heaven 5
Since I have made my friends at peace on Earth.
Rivers and Hastings, take each other’s hand.
Dissemble not your hatred. Swear your love. RIVERS, taking Hastings’ hand
By heaven, my soul is purged from grudging hate,
And with my hand I seal my true heart’s love. 10 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. 15 HASTINGS
So prosper I as I swear perfect love. RIVERS
And I as I love Hastings with my heart. KING EDWARD, to Queen Elizabeth
Madam, yourself is not exempt from this,—
Nor you, son Dorset,—Buckingham, nor you.
You have been factious one against the other.— 20
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. Hastings kisses her hand. KING EDWARD
Dorset, embrace him.—Hastings, love Lord 25
Marquess. 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 30
With thy embracements to my wife’s allies
And make me happy in your unity. BUCKINGHAM, to Queen Elizabeth
Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate
Upon your Grace, but with all duteous love
Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me 35
With hate in those where I expect most love.
When I have most need to employ a friend,
And most assurèd that he is a friend,
Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile
Be he unto me: this do I beg of God, 40
When I am cold in love to you or yours.
Queen Elizabeth and Buckingham 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 blessèd period of this peace. 45 BUCKINGHAM And in good time
Here comes Sir Richard Ratcliffe and the Duke. | At the palace in London, the sickly King Edward IV is gathered with Queen Elizabeth, her two sons Dorset and Gray, her brother Rivers, and Hastings, Catesby, and Buckingham (who have been fighting with Elizabeth's family). Edward warmly addresses the crowd and says something like "Can't we all just get along?" The two factions agree to play nice and ask God to punish them if they ever break this new bond. |
Enter Ratcliffe, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester. RICHARD
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. 50
Gloucester, we have done deeds of charity,
Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,
Between these swelling, wrong-incensèd peers. RICHARD
A blessèd labor, my most sovereign lord.
Among this princely heap, if any here 55
By false intelligence or wrong surmise
Hold me a foe,
If I unwittingly, or in my rage,
Have aught committed that is hardly borne
By any in this presence, I desire 60
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;— 65
Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham,
If ever any grudge were lodged between us;—
Of you and you, Lord Rivers and of Dorset,
That all without desert have frowned on me;—
Of you, Lord Woodeville and Lord Scales;—of you, 70
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 tonight.
I thank my God for my humility. 75 | Richard enters and makes a big speech about how he too is committed to
peace and how sorry he is for anything bad he might have done. |
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. RICHARD
Why, madam, have I offered love for this, 80
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! 85 BUCKINGHAM
Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest? DORSET
Ay, my good lord, and no man in the presence
But his red color hath forsook his cheeks. KING EDWARD
Is Clarence dead? The order was reversed. | The happy glow doesn't last long. Queen Elizabeth asks Edward to accept his imprisoned brother Clarence back into his good graces. Richard acts like Elizabeth is cruelly and purposefully mocking – after all, don't they know about Clarence? (He knows they don't.) Richard then announces to the group that Clarence is dead, pretending to be shocked they haven't heard. Everyone is shocked, especially King Edward, who knows he gave orders to reverse Clarence's sentence. |
RICHARD
But he, poor man, by your first order died, 90
And that a wingèd Mercury did bear.
Some tardy cripple bare the countermand,
That came too lag to see him burièd.
God grant that some, less noble and less loyal,
Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood, 95
Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
And yet go current from suspicion. Enter Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby. STANLEY, kneeling
A boon, my sovereign, for my service done. KING EDWARD
I prithee, peace. My soul is full of sorrow. STANLEY
I will not rise unless your Highness hear me. 100 KING EDWARD
Then say at once what is it thou requests. STANLEY
The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant’s life,
Who slew today a riotous gentleman
Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk. | Richard is all, "Oh dear, I guess your message got lost in the mail." Stanley, Earl of Derby, arrives and kneels before the king, asking him to pardon the life of a servant of his who killed a "riotous gentleman" earlier that day. |
KING EDWARD
Have I a tongue to doom my brother’s death, 105
And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?
My brother killed no man; his fault was thought,
And yet his punishment was bitter death.
Who sued to me for him? Who, in my wrath,
Kneeled at my feet, and bade me be advised? 110
Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke of love?
Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
The mighty Warwick and did fight for me?
Who told me, in the field at Tewkesbury,
When Oxford had me down, he rescued me, 115
And said “Dear brother, live, and be a king”?
Who told me, when we both lay in the field
Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
Even in his garments and did give himself,
All thin and naked, to the numb-cold night? 120
All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
Sinfully plucked, and not a man of you
Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
But when your carters or your waiting vassals
Have done a drunken slaughter and defaced 125
The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon,
And I, unjustly too, must grant it you. Stanley rises. But for my brother, not a man would speak,
Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself 130
For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
Have been beholding to him in his life,
Yet none of you would once beg for his life.
O God, I fear Thy justice will take hold
On me and you, and mine and yours for this!— 135
Come, Hastings, help me to my closet.—
Ah, poor Clarence. | This really sets Edward off, and he begins to blame everyone around him for not stopping him from ordering Clarence's execution. Edward then gives some examples of Clarence's goodness – from murdering Prince Edward of Wales for Edward's sake, to even giving up his cloak on a freezing night in battle, running around naked so Edward could be less naked. Edward, after this tender reminiscing, pardons Derby's man, lamenting that had he been more forgiving earlier (like this), he might have saved his own brother. Edward voices his fear that God will have justice on Clarence's behalf, judging everyone who didn't stand up for the condemned man. |
Some exit with King and Queen. RICHARD
This is the fruits of rashness. Marked you not
How that the guilty kindred of the Queen
Looked pale when they did hear of Clarence’ death? 140
O, they did urge it still unto the King.
God will revenge it. Come, lords, will you go
To comfort Edward with our company? BUCKINGHAM We wait upon your Grace. They exit. | The sickly king must then be carried off, leaving Richard behind with Buckingham, among others. Richard, still crafty, quickly raises suspicions against the queen and her family. He notes how they looked pale on hearing of Clarence's death (like everyone did) and declares this is evidence that the queen encouraged the king to have Clarence killed. So much for the peace treaty. |