As too triumphing, how mine enemies,
To-day at Pomfret bloodily were butcher'd,
And I myself secure in grace and favour.
O, Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
Is lighted on poor Hastings' wretched head.
Cate. Despatch, my lord, the duke would be at
dinner;

Make a short shrift, he longs to see your head.
Hast. O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks,1
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast;
Ready, with every nod, to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

Lov. Come, come, despatch; 'tis bootless to ex

claim.

Hast. O, bloody Richard!-miserable England!
I prophesy the fearful'st time to thee,
That ever wretched age hath look'd upon.
Come, lead me to the block, bear him my head;
They smile at me, who shortly shall be dead.2

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. The Same. The Tower Walls. Enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM, in rusty armour, and marvellous ill-favoured.

Glo. Come, cousin, canst thou quake, and change
thy colour?

Murder thy breath in middle of a word,-
And then again begin, and stop again,

As if thou wert distraught, and mad with terror?
Buck. Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian;
Speak, and look back, and pry on every side,
Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,
Intending deep suspicion: ghastly looks
Are at my service, like enforced smiles;
And both are ready in their offices,

At any time, to grace my stratagems.
But what, is Catesby gone?

Glo. He is; and, see, he brings the mayor along.

Enter the Lord Mayor and CATESBY.
Buck. Let me alone to entertain him.-Lord

Lovel.

Lov. Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,
The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.
Glo. So dear I lov'd the man, that I must weep.
I took him for the plainest harmless creature,
That breath'd upot, the earth a Christian;
Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded
The history of all her secret thoughts:

So smooth he daub'd his vice with show of virtue,
That, his apparent open guilt omitted,-
I mean, his conversations with Shore's wife,-
He liv'd from all attainder of suspect.

'Nescius aure fallacis.'-Horace. William Lord Hastings was beheaded on the 13th of June, 1483. His eldest son by Catherine Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, and widow of William Lord Bonville, was restored to his honours and estate by King Henry VII. in the first year of his reign. The daughter of Lady Hastings, by her first husband, was married to the marquis of Dorset, who appears in the present play.

2 Those who now smile at me shall shortly be dead themselves.

Buck. Well, well, he was the covert'st shelter'd
traitor

That ever liv'd.-Look you, my lord mayor,
Would
you imagine, or almost believe,
(Were'i not, that by great preservation
We live to tell it you, the subtle traitor
This day had plotted in the council-house,
To murder me, and my good lord of Gloster?
May. What! had he so?

Glo. What! think you we are Turks, or infi-
dels?

Or that we would, against the form of law,
Proceed thus rashly in the villain's death;
But that the extreme peril of the case,
The peace of England, and our persons' safety,
Enforc'd us to this execution?

May. Now, fair befall you! he deserv'd his death:
And your good graces both have well proceeded,
To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
I never look'd for better at his hands,
After he once fell in with mistress Shore.

Buck. Yet had we not determin'd he should die,
Until your lordship came to see his end;
Which now the loving haste of these our friends,
Somewhat against our meaning, hath prevented:
Because, my lord, we would have had you heard
The traitor speak, and timorously confess
The manner and the purpose of his treasons;
That you might well have signified the same
Unto the citizens, who, haply, may

Misconstrue us in him, and wail his death.

May. But, my good lord, your grace's word shall

serve,

As well as I had seen, and heard him speak:
And do not doubt, right noble princes both,
But I'll acquaint our duteous citizens
With all your just proceedings in this case.
Glo. And to that end we wish'd your lordship
here,

To avoid the censures of the carping world.
Buck. But since you came too late of our intent,
Yet witness what you hear we did intend:
And so, my good ford mayor, we bid farewell.
[Erit Lord Mayor.

Glo. Go after, after, cousin Buckingham.
The mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post :-
There, at your meetest vantage of the time,
Infer the bastardy of Edward's children:
Tell them, how Edward put to death a citizen,
Only for saying-he would make his son
Heir to the crown; meaning, indeed his house,
Which, by the sign thereof, was termed so."
Moreover, urge his hateful luxury,
And bestial appetite in change of lust;
Which stretch'd unto their servants, daughters,
wives,

Even where his lustful eye, or savage heart,
Without control, listed to make his prey..
Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person :-
Tell them when that my mother went with child
Of that insatiate Edward, noble York,
My princely father, then had wars in France;
And, by just computation of the time,
Found, that the issue was not his begot;
Which well appeared in his lineaments,
Being nothing like the noble duke my father:
Yet touch this sparingly, as 'twere far off;
Because, my lord, you know, my mother lives.

Buck. Doubt not, my lord; I'll play the orator,

5 i. e. familiar intercourse: what is now called 'criminal conversation,

6 Too late of our intent. In common speech a simi lar phrase is sometimes used; viz. to come short of a thing. Mason would have changed of to for.

7 This person was one Walker, a substantial citizen and grocer, at the Crown in Cheapside. These topics of Edwa 's cruelty, lust, unlawfui marriage, &c. are enlarged upon in that most extraordinary invective, the petition presented to Richard before his accession, which was afterwarde turned into an act of parliament. Parl. Hist. 2. p. 396. See also the duke of Buckinghard's speech the citizens in More's History, as copied by the Chronicles.