THE TRAGEDY OF RICHARD III
ACT III
SCENE I. London. A street.

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.

Enter young YORK, HASTINGS, and the CARDINAL

BUCKINGHAM 
Now, in good time, here comes the Duke of York.

PRINCE EDWARD 
Richard of York! how fares our loving brother?

YORK 
Well, my dread lord; so must I call you now.

PRINCE EDWARD 
Ay, brother, to our grief, as it is yours:
Too late he died that might have kept that title,
Which by his death hath lost much majesty.

GLOUCESTER 
How fares our cousin, noble Lord of York?

YORK 
I thank you, gentle uncle. O, my lord,
You said that idle weeds are fast in growth
The prince my brother hath outgrown me far.

GLOUCESTER 
He hath, my lord.

YORK 
And therefore is he idle?

GLOUCESTER 
O, my fair cousin, I must not say so.

YORK 
Then is he more beholding to you than I.

GLOUCESTER 
He may command me as my sovereign;
But you have power in me as in a kinsman.

YORK 
I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger.

GLOUCESTER 
My dagger, little cousin? with all my heart.

PRINCE EDWARD 
A beggar, brother?

YORK 
Of my kind uncle, that I know will give;
And being but a toy, which is no grief to give.

GLOUCESTER 
A greater gift than that I'll give my cousin.

YORK 
A greater gift! O, that's the sword to it.

GLOUCESTER 
A gentle cousin, were it light enough.

YORK 
O, then, I see, you will part but with light gifts;
In weightier things you'll say a beggar nay.

GLOUCESTER 
It is too heavy for your grace to wear.

YORK 
I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.

GLOUCESTER 
What, would you have my weapon, little lord?

YORK 
I would, that I might thank you as you call me.

GLOUCESTER 
How?

YORK 
Little.

PRINCE EDWARD 
My Lord of York will still be cross in talk:
Uncle, your grace knows how to bear with him.

YORK 
You mean, to bear me, not to bear with me:
Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me;
Because that I am little, like an ape,
He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulders.

BUCKINGHAM 
With what a sharp-provided wit he reasons!
To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle,
He prettily and aptly taunts himself:
So cunning and so young is wonderful.

GLOUCESTER 
My lord, will't please you pass along?
Myself and my good cousin Buckingham
Will to your mother, to entreat of her
To meet you at the Tower and welcome you.

YORK 
What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord?

PRINCE EDWARD 
My lord protector needs will have it so.

YORK 
I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.

GLOUCESTER 
Why, what should you fear?

YORK 
Marry, my uncle Clarence' angry ghost:
My grandam told me he was murdered there.

PRINCE EDWARD 
I fear no uncles dead.

GLOUCESTER 
Nor none that live, I hope.

PRINCE EDWARD 
An if they live, I hope I need not fear.
But come, my lord; and with a heavy heart,
Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.

A Sennet. Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER, BUCKINGHAM and CATESBY