The mayor is here at hand. Intend some fear; Be not you spoke with but by mighty suit: And look you get a prayer-book in your hand, And stand between two churchmen, good my lord; For on that ground I'll make a holy descant: And be not easily won to our requests; Play the maid's part,--still answer nay, and take it.

GLOSTER. I go; and if you plead as well for them As I can say nay to thee for myself, No doubt we bring it to a happy issue.

BUCKINGHAM. Go, go, up to the leads; the lord mayor knocks.

[Exit GLOSTER.]

[Enter the LORD MAYOR, ALDERMEN, and Citizens.]

Welcome, my lord. I dance attendance here; I think the duke will not be spoke withal.

[Enter, from the Castle, CATESBY.]

Now, Catesby,--what says your lord to my request?

CATESBY. He doth entreat your grace, my noble lord, To visit him to-morrow or next day: He is within, with two right reverend fathers, Divinely bent to meditation: And in no worldly suit would he be mov'd, To draw him from his holy exercise.

BUCKINGHAM. Return, good Catesby, to the gracious duke; Tell him, myself, the mayor and aldermen, In deep designs, in matter of great moment, No less importing than our general good, Are come to have some conference with his grace.

CATESBY. I'll signify so much unto him straight.

[Exit.]

BUCKINGHAM. Ah, ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward! He is not lolling on a lewd day-bed, But on his knees at meditation; Not dallying with a brace of courtezans, But meditating with two deep divines; Not sleeping, to engross his idle body, But praying, to enrich his watchful soul: Happy were England would this virtuous prince Take on his grace the sovereignty thereof: But, sure, I fear, we shall not win him to it.

MAYOR. Marry, God defend his grace should say us nay!

BUCKINGHAM. I fear he will. Here Catesby comes again.

[Re-enter CATESBY.]

Now, Catesby, what says his grace?

CATESBY. 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.

BUCKINGHAM. Sorry I am my noble cousin should Suspect me, that I mean no good to him: By heaven, we come to him in perfect love; And so once more return and tell his grace.

[Exit CATESBY.]

When holy and devout religious men Are at their beads, 'tis much to draw them thence,-- So sweet is zealous contemplation.

[Enter GLOSTER in a Galery above, between two BISHOPS. CATESBY returns.]

MAYOR. See where his grace stands 'tween two clergymen!

BUCKINGHAM. Two props of virtue for a Christian prince, To stay him from the fall of vanity: And, see, a book of prayer in his hand,-- True ornaments to know a holy man.-- Famous Plantagenet, most gracious prince, Lend favourable ear to our requests; And pardon us the interruption Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal.

GLOSTER. My lord, there needs no such apology: I rather do beseech you 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?

BUCKINGHAM. Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above, And all good men of this ungovern'd isle.

GLOSTER. I do suspect I have done some offence That seems disgracious in the city's eye; And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.

BUCKINGHAM. You have, my lord: would it might please your grace, On our entreaties, to amend your fault!

GLOSTER. Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?

BUCKINGHAM. Know then, it is your fault that you resign The supreme seat, the throne majestical, The scepter'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: Whilst, in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,-- Which here we waken to our country's good,-- The noble isle doth want her proper limbs; Her face defac'd with scars of infamy, Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants, And almost shoulder'd in the swallowing gulf Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion. Which to recure, we heartily solicit 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 successively, from blood to blood, Your right of birth, your empery, your own. For this, consorted with the citizens, Your very worshipful and loving friends, And, by their vehement instigation, In this just cause come I to move your grace.

GLOSTER. I cannot tell if to depart in silence Or bitterly to speak in your reproof Best fitteth my degree or your condition: If not to answer, you might haply think Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty, Which fondly you would here impose on me; If to reprove you for this suit of yours, So season'd with your faithful love to me, Then, on the other side, I check'd my friends. Therefore,--to speak, and to avoid the first, And then, in speaking, not to incur the last,-- Definitively thus I answer you. Your love deserves my thanks; but my desert Unmeritable shuns 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 so much is my poverty of spirit, So mighty and so 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 smother'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, no doubt, us happy by his reign. On him I lay that you would lay on me,-- The right and fortune of his happy stars; Which God defend that I should wring from him!

BUCKINGHAM. My lord, this argues conscience in your grace; But the respects thereof are nice and trivial, All circumstances well considered. You say that Edward is your brother's son: So say we too, but not by Edward's wife; For first was he contract to Lady Lucy,-- Your mother lives a witness to his vow,-- And afterward by substitute betroth'd To Bona, sister to the King of France. These both put off, a poor petitioner, A care-craz'd mother to a many sons, A beauty-waning and distressed widow,