Hark! I hear their drum.

Fight, gentlemen of England! fight, bold yeomen!
Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head!
Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood;
Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!
Enter a Messenger.

What says Lord Stanley? will he bring his power?
Messenger. My lord, he doth deny to come.
K. Richard. Off with his son George's head!
Norfolk. My lord, the enemy is pass'd the marsh :

After the battle let George Stanley die.

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K. Richard. A thousand hearts are great within my bosom : Advance our standards! set upon our foes!

Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!
Upon them! Victory sits upon our helms.

SCENE IV.-Another Part of the Field.

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[Exeunt.

Alarum Excursions. Enter NORFOLK and Forces;
to him CATESBY.

Catesby. Rescue, my Lord of Norfolk! rescue, rescue! The king enacts more wonders than a man,

Daring an opposite to every danger :

His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights,
Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death.
Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!

Alarum. Enter KING RICHARD.

K. Richard. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
Catesby. Withdraw, my lord; I'll help you to a horse.
K. Richard. Slave! I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die.

I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
Five have I slain to-day, instead of him.—
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

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10

[Exeunt.

Alarums. Enter from opposite sides KING RICHARD and RICHMOND, and exeunt fighting. Retreat and flourish. Then re-enter RICHMOND, STANLEY, bearing the crown, with divers other Lords, and Forces.

Richmond. God and your arms be prais'd, victorious friends; The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.

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Stanley. Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee!

Lo! here, this long-usurped royalty

From the dead temples of this bloody wretch
Have I pluck'd off, to grace thy brows withal :
Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.

Richmond. Great God of heaven, say amen to all!
But, tell me, is young George Stanley living?

Stanley. He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town;

Whither, if you please, we may withdraw us.

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Richmond. What men of name are slain on either side? 25 Stanley. John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Ferrers, Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon. Richmond. Inter their bodies as becomes their births: Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled That in submission will return to us; And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament, We will unite the white rose and the red : Smile, heaven, upon this fair conjunction, That long hath frown'd upon their enmity! What traitor hears me, and says not amen? England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself; The brother blindly shed the brother's blood, The father rashly slaughter'd his own son, The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire: All this divided York and Lancaster, Divided in their dire division,

O! now, let Richmond and Elizabeth,

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The true succeeders of each royal house,

By God's fair ordinance conjoin together;
And let their heirs-God, if thy will be so,-
Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac'd peace,
With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days!
Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
That would reduce these bloody days again,

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And make poor England weep in streams of blood!
Let them not live to taste this land's increase,

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That would with treason wound this fair land's peace!
Now civil wounds are stopp'd, peace lives again:
That she may long live here, God say amen!

[Exeunt.

THE FAMOUS HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF KING HENRY

THE EIGHTH

DRAMATIS PERSONEÆ.

SCENE.-Chiefly in London and Westminster; once, at Kimbolton.

PROLOGUE.

I come no more to make you laugh: things now,

That bear a weighty and a serious brow,

Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe,
Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow,
We now present. Those that can pity, here
May, if they think it well, let fall a tear;

The subject will deserve it. Such as give
Their money out of hope they may believe,

May here find truth too. Those that come to see
Only a show or two, and so agree

The play may pass, if they be still and willing,
I'll undertake may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours. Only they
That come to hear a merry, bawdy play,
A noise of targets, or to see a fellow
In a long motley coat guarded with yellow,
Will be deceiv'd; for, gentle hearers, know,
To rank our chosen truth with such a show
As fool and fight is, besides forfeiting

Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring,
To make that only true we now intend,

Will leave us never an-understanding friend.

Therefore, for goodness' sake, and as you are known
The first and happiest hearers of the town,
Be sad, as we would make ye: think ye see
The very persons of our noble story

As they were living; think you see them great,
And follow'd with the general throng and sweat
Of thousand friends; then, in a moment see
How soon this mightiness meets misery:
And if you can be merry then, I'll say
A man may weep upon his wedding day.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-London. An Antechamber in the Palace.

Enter at one door the DUKE OF NORFOLK; at the other, the DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM and the LORD ABERGAVENNY.

Buckingham. Good morrow, and well met. How have you done,

Since last we saw in France ?

I thank your Grace,

Norfolk.
Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer
Of what I saw there.

Buckingham.

An untimely ague

Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber, when
Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Andren.

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Norfolk.

'Twixt Guynes and Arde

I was then present, saw them salute on horseback;
Beheld them, when they lighted, how they clung
In their embracement, as they grew together;
Which had they, what four thron'd ones could have weigh'd
Such a compounded one?

Buckingham.

I was my chamber's prisoner.
Norfolk.

All the whole time

Then you lost
The view of earthly glory: men might say,
Till this time, pomp was single, but now married
To one above itself. Each following day
Became the next day's master, till the last
Made former wonders its. To-day the French
All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods,
Shone down the English; and to-morrow they
Made Britain India: every man that stood
Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubins, all gilt: the madams, too,
Not us'd to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them, that their very labour
Was to them as a painting. Now this masque
Was cried incomparable; and the ensuing night
Made it a fool, and beggar. The two kings,
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them; him in eye,
Still him in praise; and, being present both,

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'Twas said they saw but one; and no discerner

Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns

For so they phrase 'em-by their heralds challeng'd
The noble spirits to arms, they did perform

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Beyond thought's compass; that former fabulous story,
Being now seen possible enough, got credit,
That Bevis was believ'd.

Buckingham.

Norfolk. As I belong to worship, and affect

O! you go far.

In honour honesty, the tract of every thing

Would by a good discourser lose some life,

Which action's self was tongue to. All was royal;
To the disposing of it nought rebell'd,
Order gave each thing view; the office did
Distinctly his full function.

Buckingham.

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Who did guide,

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I mean, who set the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together, as you guess?