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Relenting fool, and shallow, changing-woman!5
How now? what news?

Enter RATCLIFF; CATESBY following.
Rat. Most mighty sovereign, on the western coast
Rideth a puissant navy; to the shore

Throng many doubtful hollow-hearted friends,
Unarm'd, and unresolv'd to beat them back:
'Tis thought, that Richmond is their admiral;
And there they hull, expecting but the aid
Of Buckingham, to welcome them ashore.

K. Rich. Some light-foot friend post to the duke of
Norfolk:-

Ratcliff, thyself,-or Catesby; where is he?
Cates. Here, my good lord.

K. Rich.

Catesby, fly to the duke. Cates. I will, my lord, with all convenient haste. K. Rich. Ratcliff, come hither:7 Post to Salisbury; When thou com'st thither,-Dull unmindful villain, [75 CATES. Why stay'st thou here, and go'st not to the duke? Cates. First, mighty liege, tell me your highness' pleasure,

What from your grace I shall deliver to him.

K. Rich. O, true, good Catesby;-Bid him levy straight The greatest strength and power he can make, And meet me suddenly at Salisbury.

Cates. I go.

[Exit.

Rat. What, may it please you, shall I do at Salisbury? K. Rich. Why, what would'st thou do there, before I

go?

Rat. Your highness told me, I should post before.

5 Relenting fool, and shallow, changing-woman!] Such was the real character of this Queen dowager, who would have married her daughter to King Richard, and did all in her power to alienate the Marquis of Dorset, her son, from the Earl of Richmond.

Steevens.

Some light-foot friend post to the duke-] Richard's precipita tion and confusion is in this scene very happily represented by inconsistent orders, and sudden variations of opinion. Johnson.

7 Ratcliff, come hither:] The folio has-Catesby, come hither. The words are not in the quarto. It is obvious that they are addressed to Ratcliff. The correction was made by Mr. Rowe.

VOL. XI.

P

Malone.

Enter STANLEY.

K. Rich. My mind is chang'd.-Stanley, what news with you?

Stan. None good, my liege, to please you with the hearing;

Nor none so bad, but well may be reported.

K. Rich. Heyday, a riddle! neither good nor bad!
What need'st thou run so many miles about,

When thou may'st tell thy tale the nearest way?
Once more, what news?

Stan.

Richmond is on the seas.

K. Rich. There let him sink, and be the seas on him! White-liver'd runagate, what doth he there?

Stan. I know not, mighty sovereign, but by guess.
K. Rich. Well, as you guess?

Stan. Stirr'd up by Dorset, Buckingham, and Morton, .He makes for England, here to claim the crown.

K. Rich. Is the chair empty? is the sword unsway'd? Is the king dead? the empire unpossess'd?

What heir of York is there alive, but we?
And who is England's king, but great York's heir?
Then, tell me, what makes he upon the seas?

Stan. Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess.
K. Rich. Unless for that he comes to be your liege,

White-liver'd runagate,] This epithet, descriptive of cowardice, is not peculiar to Shakspeare. Stephen Gosson in his School of Abuse, 1579, speaking of the Helots, says:

"Leave those precepts to the white-livered Hylotes."

Steevens,

9 What heir of York-] i. e. What son of Richard Duke of York?

Ritson.

Richard asks this question in the plenitude of power, and no one dares to answer him. But they whom he addresses, had they not been intimidated, might have told him, that there was a male heir of the house of York alive, who had a better claim to the throne than he; Edward Earl of Warwick, the only son of the Usurper's elder brother, George Duke of Clarence; and Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, and all her sisters, had a better title than either of them. Malone.

The issue of King Edward had been pronounced illegitimate, the Duke of Clarence attainted of high treason,-and the usurper declared "the undoubted heir of Richard duke of York,”—by act of parliament: so that, as far as such a proceeding can alter the constitution, and legalize usurpation and murder, he is perfectly correct and unanswerable. Ritson.

You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes.
Thou wilt revolt, and fly to him, I fear.

Stan. No, mighty liege;1 therefore mistrust me not. K. Rich. Where is thy power then, to beat him back? Where be thy tenants, and thy followers?

Are they not now upon the western shore,
Safe-conducting the rebels from their ships?

Stan. No, my good lord, my friends are in the north. K. Rich. Cold friends to me: What do they in the north, When they should serve their sovereign in the west? Stan. 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.
K. Rich. Ay, ay, thou wouldst be gone to join with
Richmond:

I will not trust you, sir.2

Stan.
Most mighty sovereign,
You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful;
I never was, nor never will be false.

K. Rich. Well, go, muster men. But, hear you, leave behind

Your son, George Stanley: look your heart be firm,
Or else his head's assurance is but frail.

Stan. So deal with him, as I prove true to you.

Enter a Messenger.

[Exit STAN.

Mess. My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire,

As I by friends am well advértised,

Sir Edward Courtney, and the haughty prelate,
Bishop of Exeter, his elder brother,

With many more confederates, are in arms.

Enter another Messenger.

2 Mess. In Kent, my liege, the Guildfords are in arms; And every hour more competitors3

1 No, mighty liege;] So, the quarto. Folio-No, my good lord.

Malone.

2 I will not trust you, sir.] So, the quarto. Folio-But I 'll not trust thee. Malone.

3 more competitors-] That is, more opponents. Johnson. Competitors do not here mean opponents, but associates See a note on this subject in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, where Sir Proteus, speaking of Valentine, says:

Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong.
Enter another Messenger.

3 Mess. My lord, the army of great BuckinghamK. Rich. Out on ye, owls! nothing but songs of death? [He strikes him. There, take thou that, till thou bring better news. 3 Mess. The news I have to tell your majesty, Is, that, by sudden floods and fall of waters, Buckingham's army is dispers'd and scatter'd; And he himself wander'd away alone,

No man knows whither.

K. Rich.

O, I cry you mercy:

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

Hath any well-advised friend proclaim'd

Reward to him that brings the traitor in?

3 Mess. Such proclamation hath been made, my liege. Enter another Messenger.

4 Mess. Sir Thomas Lovel, and lord marquis Dorset, 'Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms. But this good comfort bring I to your highness, The Bretagne 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
Upon his party: he, mistrusting them,

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

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4 The news I have &c.] So, the folio. The quarto reads:
"Your grace mistakes; the news I bring is good;
"My news is," &c. Malone.

5

and made his course again for Bretagne.] Henry Tudor Earl of Richmond, the eldest son of Edmund of Hadham Earl of Richmond, (who was half-brother to King Henry VI) by Margaret, the only daughter of John the first Duke of Somerset, who was grandson to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, was carried by his uncle Jasper Earl of Pembroke immediately after the battle of Tewksbury into Britany, where he was kept in a kind of honourable custody by the Duke of Bretagne, and where he remained till the year 1484, when he made his escape and fled for protection to the French court. Being considered at that

K. Rich. 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.

Enter CATESBY.

Cates. 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 news, but yet they must be told,?

K. Rich. Away towards Salisbury; while we reason here, 8

A royal battle might be won and lost:9—
Some one take order, Buckingham be brought
To Salisbury;—the rest march on with me.

[Exeunt.

time as nearest in blood to King Henry VI, all the Lancastrian party looked up to him even in the life-time of King Edward IV, who was extremely jealous of him; and after. Richard usurped the throne, they with more confidence supported Richmond's claim. The claim of Henry Duke of Buckingham was in some respects inferior to that of Richmond; for he was descended by his mother from Edmund the second Duke of Somerset, the younger brother of Duke John; by his father from Thomas Duke of Gloster, the younger brother of John of Gaunt: but whatever priority the Earl of Richmond might claim by his mother, he could not plead any title through his father, who in fact had no Lancastrian blood whatsoever: nor was his maternal title of the purest kind, for John the first Earl of Somerset was an illegitimate son of John of Gaunt. Malone.

6 landed at Milford,] The Earl of Richmond embarked with about 2000 men at Harfleur in Normandy, August 1st, 1485, and landed at Milford Haven on the 7th. He directed his course to Wales, hoping the Welsh would receive him cordially, as their countryman, he having been born at Pembroke, and his grandfather being Owen Tudor, who married Katharine of France, the widow of King Henry V. Malone.

7

they must be told.] This was the language of Shakspeare's time, when the word news was often considered as plural. See note on Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, sc. i, Vol. XIII.

8

All the modern editors, however, read-it must be told.

Malone.

while we reason here,] i. e. while we talk here. See Vol.. IV, p. 356, n. 8. Malone.

9 A royal battle might be won and lost:] So, in Macbeth: "When the battle 's lost and won.'

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This antithetical phrase is found in several of our ancient wri ters. Steevens.

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