He is within, with two right-reverend fathers,

Divinely bent to meditation,

And in no worldly fuits would he be mov'd,

To draw him from his holy exercise.

Buck. Return, good Catesby, to the gracious duke; Tell him, myself, the mayor and aldermen,

In deep defigns, in matters of great moment,

No less importing than our gen'ral good,

Are come to have fome conf'rence with his grace.

CAT. I'll fignify fo much unto him strait.

[Exit.

BUCK. Ah, ah! my lord, this prince is not an Edward He is not lolling on a lewd love-bed,

But on his knees at meditation;

Not dallying with a brace of curtezans,
But meditating with two deep divines;
Not fleeping to engross his idle body,
But praying, to enrich his watchful foul.

Happy were England, would this virtuous prince

Take on his grace the fov'reignty thereof;

But, fure, I fear, we shall not win him to it.

MAY. Marry, God shield, his grace should say us NAY! BUCK. I fear, he will; here Catesby comes again.

Enter Catesby,

Catesby, what fays his grace?

CAT. He wonders to what end you have assembled

Such troops of citizens to come to him,

His grace not being warn'd thereof before.

He fears, my lord, you mean no good to him.
BUCK. Sorry I am, my noble coufin fhould

Suspect me, that I mean no good to him;
By heav'n, we come to him in perfect love,
K k

VOL. IV.

And fo once more return, and tell his grace.

When holy and devout religious men

Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence,
So fweet is zealous contemplation.

[Exit Cat.

SCENE VIII. Enter Gloucester above, between two bishops. Catesby returns.

MAY. See, where his grace stands 'tween two clergymen. BUCK. Two props of virtue, for a chriftian prince,

To stay him from the fall of vanity;

And fee, a book of prayer in his hand,

True ornaments to know a holy man.

Famous Plantagenet! moft gracious prince, Lend favourable ear to our requests;

And pardon us the interruption

Of thy devotion and right-christian zeal.

GLO. My lord, there needs no such apology;
I do befeech your grace to pardon me,
Who, earnest in the service of my God,
Deferr'd the visitation of my friends.

But, leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure ?

BUCK. Ev'n that, I hope, which pleaseth God above, And all good men of this ungovern'd ifle.

GLO. I do fufpect, I have done fome offence,

That seems difgracious in the city's eye;

And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.

BUCK. You have, my lord; would it might please your

[grace

GLO. Elfe wherefore breathe I in a christian land?

On our intreaties, to amend your fault.

BUCK. Know then, it is your fault that you refign

The supreme feat, the throne majeftical,

The fcepter'd office of your ancestors,

Your state of fortune, and your due of birth,
The lineal glory of your royal house,

To the corruption of a blemish'd stock,
While in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,
Which here we waken to our country's good,
The noble ifle doth want her proper limbs ;
Her face defac'd with fears of infarmy,

Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,
And almost shoulder'd in the swallowing gulph
Of dark forgetfulness, and deep oblivion;
Which to re-cure, we heartily folicit

Your gracious self to take on you the charge
And kingly government of this your land,
Not as protector, steward, substitute,
Or lowly factor for another's gain,
But as fucceffively, from blood to blood,
Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
For this, conforted with the citizens,
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement instigation,

In this juft fuit come I to move your grace.
GLO. I cannot tell, if to depart in silence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof,
Beft fitteth my degree, or your condition.
For not to answer, you might, haply, think,
Tongue-ty'd ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
Which fondly you would here impofe on me.
If to reprove you for his fuit of yours,
So feafon'd with your faithful love to me,
Then, on the other Gide, I check'd my friends,

Therefore to speak, and to avoid the first,
And then, in speaking, not incur the last,
Definitively thus I answer you.

Your love deferves my thanks; but my defert,
Unmeritable, fhuns your high request.

First, if all obstacles were cut away,

And that my path were even to the crown,
As the ripe revenue and due of birth;

Yet fo much is my poverty of spirit,
So mighty and fo many my defects,

That I would rather hide me from my greatness,
Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,

Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
And in the vapour of my glory fmother'd.
But, God be thank'd, there is no need of me,
And much I need to help you, were there need:
The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time,
Will well become the seat of majesty;
And make us, doubtlefs, happy by his reign.
On him I lay what you would lay on me,
The right and fortune of his happy stars;

Which, God defend, that I should wring from him!

Buck. My lord, this argues confcience in your grace,

But the refpects thereof are nice and trivial,

All circumstances well confidered.

You fay, that Edward is your brother's fon;
So fay we too, but not by Edward's wife,
For first was he contract to lady Lucy,
Your mother lives a witness to that vow;
And afterward by fubftitute betroth'd
To Bona, fifter to the king of France.

These both put off, a poor petitioner,

A care-craz'd mother of a many children,
A beauty-waining, and aistressed widow,
Ev'n in the afternoon of her beft days,
Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye;
Seduc'd the pitch and height of all his thoughts
To bafe declenfion and loath'd bigamy.

By her, in his unlawful bed, he got

This Edward, whom our manners call the prince.
More bitterly could I expoftulate,

Save that, for reverence of some alive,

I give a sparing limit to my tongue.

Then, good my lord, take to your royal felf

This proffer'd benefit of dignity,

If not to bless us and the land withal,
Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
From the corruption of abufing time,
Unto a lineal, true-derived course.

MAY. Do, good my lord, your citizens intreat you. Buck. Refufe not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love. CAT. O make them joyful, grant their lawful fuit. GLO. Alas, why would you heap these cares on me? I am unfit for ftate and majefty,

I do beseech you, take it not amiss;

I cannot, nor I will not yield to you.

Buck. If you refuse it, as, in love and zeal,
Loth to depose the child, your brother's fon,
(As well we know your tenderness of heart,
And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
And equally, indeed, to all eftates)
Yet know, whether you accept our fuit or no,