| ACT II SCENE I | London. The palace. | |
| | Flourish. Enter KING EDWARD IV sick, QUEENELIZABETH, DORSET, RIVERS, HASTINGS, BUCKINGHAM,GREY, and others | |
| KING EDWARD IV | 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; | 5 |
| | And now in peace my soul shall part to heaven, | |
| | Since I have set my friends at peace on earth. | |
| | Rivers and Hastings, take each other's hand; | |
| | Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love. | |
| RIVERS | By heaven, my heart is purged from grudging hate: | 10 |
| | And with my hand I seal my true heart's love. | |
| HASTINGS | So thrive I, as I truly swear the like! | |
| KING EDWARD IV | Take heed you dally not before your king; | |
| | Lest he that is the supreme King of kings | |
| | Confound your hidden falsehood, and award | 15 |
| | Either of you to be the other's end. | |
| HASTINGS | So prosper I, as I swear perfect love! | |
| RIVERS | And I, as I love Hastings with my heart! | |
| KING EDWARD IV | Madam, yourself are not exempt in this, | |
| | Nor your son Dorset, Buckingham, nor you; | 20 |
| | You have been factious one against the other, | |
| | Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand; | |
| | And what you do, do it unfeignedly. | |
| QUEEN ELIZABETH | Here, Hastings; I will never more remember | |
| | Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine! | 25 |
| KING EDWARD IV | Dorset, embrace him; Hastings, love lord marquess. | |
| DORSET | This interchange of love, I here protest, | |
| | Upon my part shall be unviolable. | |
| HASTINGS | And so swear I, my lord | |
| | They embrace | |
| KING EDWARD IV | Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league | 30 |
| | With thy embracements to my wife's allies, | |
| | And make me happy in your unity. | |
| BUCKINGHAM | Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate | |
| | On you or yours, | |
| | To the Queen | |
| | but with all duteous love | 35 |
| | Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me | |
| | With hate in those where I expect most love! | |
| | When I have most need to employ a friend, | |
| | And most assured that he is a friend | |
| | Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile, | 40 |
| | Be he unto me! this do I beg of God, | |
| | When I am cold in zeal to yours. | |
| KING EDWARD IV | A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham, | |
| | is this thy vow unto my sickly heart. | |
| | There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here, | 45 |
| | To make the perfect period of this peace. | |
| BUCKINGHAM | And, in good time, here comes the noble duke. | |
| | Enter GLOUCESTER | |
| GLOUCESTER | Good morrow to my sovereign king and queen: | |
| | And, princely peers, a happy time of day! | |
| KING EDWARD IV | Happy, indeed, as we have spent the day. | 50 |
| | Brother, we done deeds of charity; | |
| | Made peace enmity, fair love of hate, | |
| | Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers. | |
| GLOUCESTER | A blessed labour, my most sovereign liege: | |
| | Amongst 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, Lord Rivers, and, Lord Grey, of you; | |
| | That without desert have frown'd on me; | |
| | Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen; indeed, of all. | 70 |
| | I do not know that Englishman alive | |
| | With whom my soul is any jot at odds | |
| | More than the infant that is born to-night | |
| | I thank my God for my humility. | |
| QUEEN ELIZABETH | A holy day shall this be kept hereafter: | 75 |
| | I would to God all strifes were well compounded. | |
| | My sovereign liege, I do beseech your majesty | |
| | To take our brother Clarence to your grace. | |
| GLOUCESTER | Why, madam, have I offer'd love for this | |
| | To be so bouted in this royal presence? | 80 |
| | Who knows not that the noble duke is dead? | |
| | They all start | |
| | You do him injury to scorn his corse. | |
| RIVERS | Who knows not he is dead! who knows he is? | |
| QUEEN ELIZABETH | All seeing heaven, what a world is this! | |
| BUCKINGHAM | Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest? | 85 |
| DORSET | Ay, my good lord; and no one in this presence | |
| | But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks. | |
| KING EDWARD IV | Is Clarence dead? the order was reversed. | |
| GLOUCESTER | But he, poor soul, by your first order died, | |
| | And that a winged Mercury did bear: | 90 |
| | Some tardy cripple bore the countermand, | |
| | That came too lag to see him buried. | |
| | God grant that some, less noble and less loyal, | |
| | Nearer in bloody thoughts, but not in blood, | |
| | Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did, | 95 |
| | And yet go current from suspicion! | |
| | Enter DERBY | |
| DORSET | A boon, my sovereign, for my service done! | |
| KING EDWARD IV | I pray thee, peace: my soul is full of sorrow. | |
| DORSET | I will not rise, unless your highness grant. | |
| KING EDWARD IV | Then speak at once what is it thou demand'st. | 100 |
| DORSET | The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life; | |
| | Who slew to-day a righteous gentleman | |
| | Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk. | |
| KING EDWARD IV | Have a tongue to doom my brother's death, | |
| | And shall the same give pardon to a slave? | 105 |
| | My brother slew no man; his fault was thought, | |
| | And yet his punishment was cruel death. | |
| | Who sued to me for him? who, in my rage, | |
| | Kneel'd at my feet, and bade me be advised | |
| | Who spake of brotherhood? who spake of love? | 110 |
| | Who told me how the poor soul did forsake | |
| | The mighty Warwick, and did fight for me? | |
| | Who told me, in the field by Tewksbury | |
| | When Oxford had me down, he rescued me, | |
| | And said, 'Dear brother, live, and be a king'? | 115 |
| | Who told me, when we both lay in the field | |
| | Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me | |
| | Even in his own garments, and gave himself, | |
| | All thin and naked, to the numb cold night? | |
| | All this from my remembrance brutish wrath | 120 |
| | Sinfully pluck'd, 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 | |
| | The precious image of our dear Redeemer, | 125 |
| | You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon; | |
| | And I unjustly too, must grant it you | |
| | But for my brother not a man would speak, | |
| | Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself | |
| | For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all | 130 |
| | Have been beholding to him in his life; | |
| | Yet none of you would once plead for his life. | |
| | O God, I fear thy justice will take hold | |
| | On me, and you, and mine, and yours for this! | |
| | Come, Hastings, help me to my closet. | 135 |
| | Oh, poor Clarence! | |
| | Exeunt some with KING EDWARD IV and QUEEN MARGARET | |
| GLOUCESTER | This is the fruit of rashness! Mark'd you not | |
| | How that the guilty kindred of the queen | |
| | Look'd pale when they did hear of Clarence' death? | |
| | O, they did urge it still unto the king! | 140 |
| | God will revenge it. But come, let us in, | |
| | To comfort Edward with our company. | |
| BUCKINGHAM | We wait upon your grace. | |
| | Exeunt | |
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